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HISTORY 



OF 



NERO. 



BY JACOB ABBOTT. 



Wify itigranings< 




NEW YORK: 
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS. 

329 & 331 PEARL STREET, 
FRANKLIN SQUARE 



18 53. 






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Entered, according- to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand 
eight hundred and fifty -three, by 

Harper & Brothers, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District 
of New York. 



PREFACE 



In writing the series of historical narratives to 
which the present work pertains, it has been the 
object of the author to furnish to the reading com- 
munity of this country an accurate and faithful 
account of the lives and actions of the several per- 
sonages that are made successively the subjects of 
he volumes, following precisely the story which has 
:ome down to us from ancient times. The writer 
ias spared no pains to gain access in all cases to the 
Tiginal sources of information, and has confined 
imself strictly to them. The reader may, therefore, 
.^el assured in perusing any one of these works, that 
le interest of it is in no degree indebted to the inven- 
>n of the author. No incident, however trivial, is 
ever added to the original account, nor are any words 
even, in any case, attributed to a speaker without 
express authority. Whatever of interest, therefore, 
these stories may possess, is due solely to the facts 
themselves which are recorded in them, and to their 
being brought together in a plain, simple, and con- 
nected narrative. 



VC \ 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER 

I. NERO'S MOTHER 

II. THE ASSASSINATION OF CALIGULA.. 

III. THE ACCESSION OF CLAUDIUS .... 

IV. THE FATE OF MESSALINA 

V. THE CHILDHOOD OF NERO 

VI. NERO AN EMPEROR 

VII. BRITANNICUS 

VIII. THE FATE OP AGRIPPINA 

IX. EXTREME DEPRAVITY 

X. PISO'S CONSPIRACY 

XI. THE FATE OF THE CONSPIRATORS. 

XII. THE EXPEDITION INTO GREECE . . 

XIII. NERO'S END 



PAG* 

13 

34 

55 

11 

105 

124 

148 

112 

208 

. 228 

. 250 

212 

. 299 



ENGRAVINGS 



PAGE 

map — environs of rome Frontispiece. 

ENCAMPMENT OF A ROMAN LEGION 21 

CjESONIA 53 

DISCOVERY OF CLAUDIUS 64 

MESSALINA IN THE GARDEN 89 

THE POISONING OF CLAUDIUS 132 

THE JEWELRY 156 

THE ATTEMPT OF ANICETUS 197 

BURNING OF ROME 225 

THE KNIFE 244 

BRINGING EPICHARIS TO THE TORTURE 253 

PHAON AT THE WALL , . . 316 



NERO. 



Chapter I. 
Nero's Mother. 



Roman country seats. Antium. 

IjST ancient times, when the city of Rome 
was at the height of its power and splen- 
dor, it was the custom, as it is in fact now 
with the inhabitants of wealthy capitals, for 
the principal families to possess, in addition 
to their city residences, rural villas for sum- 
mer retreats, which they built in picturesque 
situations, at a little distance from the city, 
sometimes in the interior of the countrv, and 
sometimes upon the sea-shore. There were 
many attractive places of resort of this nature 
in the neighborhood of Eome. Among them 
was Antium. 

Antium was situated on the sea-coast about 
thirty miles south of the Tiber. A bold prom- 
ontory here projects into the sea, affording 



14 Nero. [A J). 37. 

Situation of the promontory of Antium. 

from its declivities the most extended and 
magnificent views on every side. On the 
north, looking from the promontory of Antium, 
the eye follows the line of the coast away to 
the mouth of the Tiber ; while, on the south, 
the view is terminated, at about the same dis- 
tance, by the promontory of Circe, which is 
the second cape, or promontory, thftt marks 
the shore of Italy in going southward from 
Rome. Toward the interior, from Antium, 
there extends a broad and beautiful plain, 
bounded by wooded hills toward the shore, 
and by ranges of mountains in the distance 
beyond. On the southern side of the cape, 
and sheltered by it, was a small harbor where 
vessels from all the neighboring seas had been 
accustomed to bring in their cargoes, or to 
seek shelter in storms, from time immemorial. 
In fact, Antium, in point of antiquity, takes 
precedence, probably, even of Home. 

The beauty and the salubrity of Antium 
made it a very attractive place of summer 
resort for the people of Rome ; and in process 
of time, when the city attained to an advanced 
stage of opulence and luxury, the Roman 
noblemen built villas there, choosing situa- 
tions, in some instances, upon the natural ter- 



A.D. 37.] Nero's Mother. 15 

Account of Nero's parentage. Brazenbeard. 

races and esplanades of the promontory, 
which looked off over the sea, and in others 
cool and secluded retreats in the valleys, on 
the land. It was in one of these villas that 
Nero was born. 

Nero's father belonged to a family which 
had enjoyed for several generations a consid- 
erable degree of distinction among the Roman 
nobility, though known by a somewhat whim- 
sical name. The family name was Brazen- 
beard, or, to speak more exactly, it was Ahe- 
noba,rbus, which is the Latin equivalent for 
that word. It is a question somewhat difficult 
to decide, whether in speaking of Nero's fa- 
ther at the present time, and in the English 
tongue, we should make use of the actual Lat- 
in name, or translate the word and employ the 
English representative of it ; that is, whether 
we shall call him Ahenobarbus or Brazen- 
beard. The former seems to be more in har- 
mony with our ideas of the dignity of Roman 
history ; while the latter, though less elegant, 
conveys probably to our minds a more exact 
idea of the import and expression of the name 
as it sounded in the ears of the Roman com- 
munity. The name certainly was not an at- 
tractive one, though the family had contriv- 



16 Nero. [A.D. 37. 

Nero's father. Agrippina his mother. 



ed to dignify it some degree by assigning to 
it a preternatural origin. There was a tradi- 
tion that in ancient times a prophet appeared 
to one of the ancestors of the line, and after 
foretelling certain extraordinary events which 
were to occur at some future period, strok- 
ed down the beard of his auditor with his 
hand, and changed it to the color of brass, 
in miraculous attestation of the divine author- 
ity of the message. The man received the 
name of Brazenbeard in consequence, and he 
and his descendants ever afterward retained 
it. 

The family of the Brazenbeards was one of 
high rank and distinction, though at the time 
of Nero's birth it was, like most of the other 
prominent Roman families, extremely profli- 
gate and corrupt. Nero's father, especially, 
was a very bad man. He was accused of the 
very worst of crimes, and he led a life of con- 
stant remorse and terror. His wife, Agrip- 
pina, Nero's mother, was as wicked as he ; 
and it is said that when the messenger came 
to him to announce the birth of his child, the 
hero of this narrative, he uttered some excla- 
mation of ill-humor and contempt, and said 
that whatever came from him and Agrip- 



A.D. 37.] Nero's Mother. 17 

Agrippina's brother Caligula. Roman emperors. 

pina could not but be fraught with ruin to 
Rome. 

The rank and station of Agrippina in Ro- 
man society was even higher than that of her 
husband. She was the sister of the emperor. 
The name of the emperor, her brother, was 
Caligula. He was the third in the series of 
Roman emperors, Augustus Caesar, the suc- 
cessor of Julius Caesar, having been the first. 
The term emperor, however, had a very dif- 
ferent meaning in those days, from its present 
import. It seems to denote now a sovereign 
ruler, who exercises officially a general juris- 
diction which extends over the whole govern- 
ment of the state. In the days of the Ro- 
mans it included, in theory at least, only 
military command. The word was imperator, 
which meant comrnander ; and the station 
which it denoted was simply that of general- 
in-chief over the military forces of the re- 
public. 

In the early periods of the Roman history, 
every possible precaution w^as taken to keep 
the military power in a condition of very strict 
subordination to the authority of the civil 
magistrate and of law. Very stringent regu- 
lations were adopted to secure this end. ISTo 

B 



18 JS t eeo. [A.D.37. 

Regulations in respect to the Roman armies. 

portion of the army, except such small de- 
tachments as were required for preserving 
order within the walls, was allowed to ap- 
proach the city. Great commanders, in re- 
turning from their victorious campaigns, were 
obliged to halt and encamp at some distance 
from the gates, and there await the orders of 
the Roman Senate. The Senate was, in the- 
ory, the great repository of political power. 
This Senate was not, however, as the word 
might seem in modern times to denote, a well- 
defined and compact body of legislators, des- 
ignated individually to the office, but rather a 
class of hereditary nobles, very numerous, and 
deriving their power from immemorial usage, 
and from that strange and unaccountable 
feeling of deference and awe with which the 
mass of mankind always look up to an estab- 
lished, and especially an ancient, aristocracy. 
The Senate were accustomed to convene at 
stated times, in assemblages which were, 
sometimes, conducted with a proper degree 
of formality and order, and sometimes on the 
other hand, exhibited scenes of great tumult 
and confusion. Their pow^r, however, whether 
regularly or irregularly exercised, was su- 
preme. They issued edicts, they enacted laws, 



A.D. 37.] Nero's Mother. 19 



Description of the Roman armies. 



they alloted provinces, they made peace, and 
they declared war. The armies, and the gen- 
erals who commanded them, were the agents 
employed to do their bidding. 

The Roman armies consisted of vast bodies 
of men which, when not in actual service, 
were established in permanent encampments 
in various parts of the empire, wherever it 
was deemed necessary that troops should be 
stationed. These great bodies of troops were 
the celebrated Eoman legions, and they were 
renowned throughout the world for their dis- 
cipline, their admirable organization, the 
celerity of their movements, and for the in- 
domitable courage and energy of the men. 
Each legion constituted, in fact, a separate 
and independent community. Its camp was 
its city. Its general was its king. In time 
of war it moved, of course, from place to 
place, as the exigencies of the service re- 
quired ; but in time of peace it established 
itself with great formality in a spacious and 
permanent encampment, which was laid out 
with great regularity, and fortified with ram- 
parts and fosses. Within the confines of the 
camp the tents were arranged in rows, with 
broad spaces for streets between them ; and 



20 Nero. [A.D. 37. 

Encampments of the legions. Their stations. 

in a central position, before a space which 
served the purpose of a public square, the 
rich and ornamented pavilions of the com- 
mander and chief, and of the other generals, 
rose above the rest, like the public edifices of 
a city. The encampment of a Roman legion 
was, in fact, an extended and populous city, 
only that the dwellings consisted of tents in- 
stead of being formed of solid and permanent 
structures of wood or stone. 

Roman legions were encamped in this way 
in various places throughout the empire, 
wherever the Senate thought proper to station 
them. There were some in Syria and the 
East ; some in Italy ; some on the banks of 
the Rhine ; and it was through the instru- 
mentality of the vast force thus organized, 
that the Romans held the whole European 
world under their sway. The troops were 
satisfied to yield submission to the orders of 
their commanders, since they received through 
them in return, an abundant supply of food 
and clothing, and lived, ordinarily, lives of 
ease and indulgence. In consideration of 
this, they were willing to march from place 
to place wherever they were ordered, and to 
fight any enemy when brought into the field. 



. \ 



f 
A.D. 37.] Nero's Mother. 23 

Useful functions of the Roman armies. 

The commanders obtained food and clothing 
for them by means of the tribute which they 
exacted from conquered provinces, and from 
the plunder of sacked cities, in times of actual 
war. These armies were naturally interested 
in preserving order and maintaining in gen- 
eral the authority of law, throughout the 
communities which they controlled ; for with- 
out law and order the industrial pursuits of 
men could not go on, and of course they were 
well aware that if in any country production 
were to cease, tribute must soon cease too. 
In reading history we find, indeed, it must be 
confessed, that a fearful proportion of the 
narrative which describes the achievements 
of ancient armies, is occupied with detailing 
deeds of violence, rapine, and crime ; but we 
must not infer from this that the influence of 
these vast organizations was wholly evil. 
Such extended and heterogeneous masses of 
population as those which were spread over 
Europe and Asia, in the days of the Romans, 
could be kept subject to the necessary re- 
straints of social order only by some very 
powerful instrumentality. The legions or- 
ganized by the Roman Senate, and stationed 
here and there throughout the extended ter- 



24 Neko. [A J). 37. 

Effects produced. Mode of producing them, 

ritory, constituted this instrumentality. But 
still, during far the greater portion of the 
time the power which a legion wielded was 
power in repose. It accomplished its end by 
its simple presence, and by the sentiment of 
awe which its presence inspired ; and the na- 
tions and tribes within the circle of its influ- 
ence lived in peace, and pursued their indus- 
trial occupations without molestation, protect- 
ed by the consciousness which everywhere 
pervaded the minds of men, that the Roman 
power was at hand. The legion hovered, as 
it were, like a dark cloud in their horizon, si- 
lent and in repose; but containing, as they 
well knew, the latent elements of thunder, 
which might at any time burst upon their 
heads. Thus, in its ordinary operation, its 
influence was good. Occasionally and inci- 
dentally periods of commotion would occur, 
when its action was violent, cruel, and merci- 
lessly evil. Unfortunately, however, for the 
credit of the system in the opinion of man- 
kind in subsequent ages, there was in the 
good which it effected nothing to narrate ; 
while every deed of violence and crime which 
was perpetrated by its agency, furnished ma- 
terials for an entertaining and exciting story. 



A.D. 37.] Neko's Mother. 25 

Ancient narratives. The civil authorities. 

The good whicn was accomplished extended 
perhaps through a long, but monotonous pe- 
riod of quiescence and repose. The evil was 
brief, but was attended with a raj)id succes- 
sion of events, and varied by innumerable in- 
cidents ; so that the historian was accustomed 
to pass lightly over the one, with a few indif- 
ferent words of cold description, while he em- 
ployed all the force of his genius in amplify- 
ing and adorning the narratives which com- 
memorated the other. Thus, violent and op- 
pressive as the military rulers were, by whom 
in ancient times the world was governed, they 
were less essentially and continuously violent 
and oppressive than the general tenor of his- 
tory makes them seem ; and their crimes were, 
in some degree at least, compensated for and 
redeemed, by the really useful function which 
they generally fulfilled, of restraining and 
repressing all disorder and violence except 
their own. 

The Roman legions, in particular, were for 
many centuries kept in tolerable subjection 
to the civil authorities of the capitol ; but 
they were growing stronger and stronger all 
the time, and becoming more and more con- 
scious of their strength. Every new com- 



26 Nbko. [A.D. 37. 



The progress of the military power. 



mander who acquired renown by his victories, 
added greatly to the importance and influ- 
ence of the army in its political relations. 
The great Julius Caesar, in the course of his 
foreign conquests, and of his protracted and 
terrible wars with Pompey, and with his 
other rivals, made enormous strides in this 
direction. Every time that he returned to 
Home at the head of his victorious legions, 
he overawed the capitol more and more. Oc- 
tavius Csesar, the successor of Julius, known 
generally in history by the name of Augustus, 
completed what his uncle had begun. He 
made the military authority, though still 
nominally and in form subordinate, in reality 
paramount and supreme. The Senate, indeed, 
continued to assemble, and to exercise its 
usual functions. Consuls and other civil mag- 
istrates were chosen, and invested with the 
insignia of supreme command ; and the cus- 
tomary forms and usages of civil administra- 
tion, in which the subordination of the mili- 
tary to the civil power was fully recognized, 
were all continued. Still, the actual author- 
ity of the civil government was wholly over- 
awed and overpowered ; and the haughty 



A.D. 37.] Neko's Mother. 27 

Disposition of men to submit to established power. 

imperator dictated to the Senate, and directed 
the administration, just as he pleased. 

It required great genius in the commanders 
to bring up the army to this position of as- 
cendency and power; but once up, it sus- 
tained itself there, without the necessity of 
ability of any kind, or of any lofty qualities 
whatever, in those subsequently placed at the 
head. In fact, the reader of history has often 
occasion to be perfectly amazed at the lengths 
to which human endurance will go, when a 
governmental power of any kind is once es- 
tablished, in tolerating imbecility and folly 
in the individual representatives of it. It 
seems to be immaterial whether the dominant 
power assumes the form of a dynasty of kings, 
a class of hereditary nobles, or a line of mili- 
tary generals. It requires genius and states- 
manship to instate it, but, once instated, no 
degree of stupidity, folly or crime in those 
who wield it, seems sufficient to exhaust the 
spirit of submission with which man always 
bows to established power — a spirit of submis- 
sion which is so universal, and so patient and 
enduring, and which so transcends all the 
bounds of expediency and of reason, as to 
seem like a blind instinct implanted in the 



28 Neeo. [A.D. 37. 

Great capacity of the early emperors. 

very soul of man by the Author of his being — 
a constituent and essential part of his nature 
as a gregarious animal. In fact, without some 
such instinct, it would seem impossible that 
those extended communities could be formed 
and sustained, without which man, if he could 
exist at all, could certainly never fully de- 
velop his capacities and powers. 

However this may be in theory, it is cer- 
tain in fatt, that the work of bringing up the 
military power of ancient Rome to its condi- 
tion of supremacy over all the civil functions 
of government, was the work of men of the 
most exalted capacities and powers. Marius 
and Sylla, Pompey and Csesar, Antony and 
Augustus, evinced, in all their deeds, a high 
degree of sagacity, energy, and greatness of 
soul. Mankind, though they may condemn 
their vices and crimes, will never cease to 
admire the grandeur of their ambition, and 
the magnificence, comprehensiveness, and ef- 
ficiency of their plans of action. The whole 
known world was the theater of their con- 
tests, and the armies which they organized 
and disciplined, and which they succeeded at 
length in bringing under the control of one 
central and consolidated command, formed 



A.D. 37.] Nero's Mother. 29 

Roman armies. Character of Caligula. 

the most extended and imposing military 
power that the world had ever seen. It was 
not only vast in extent, but permanent and 
self-sustaining in character. A wide and 
complicated, but most effectual system was 
adopted for maintaining it. Its discipline 
was perfect. Its organization was complete. 
It was equally trained to remain quietly at 
home in its city -like encampments, in time of 
peace, or to march, or bivouac, or fight, in 
time of war. Such a system could be formed 
only by men possessed of mental powers of 
the highest character ; but, once formed, it 
could afterward sustain itself; and not only 
so, but it was found capable of holding up, 
by its own inherent power, the most imbecile 
and incompetent men, as the nominal rulers 
of it. 

Caligula, for example, the brother of Agrip- 
pina, and the reigning emperor at the time 
of Nero's birth, was a man wholly unfit to 
exercise any high command. He was ele- 
vated to the post by the influence of the army, 
simply because he was the most prominent 
man among those who had hereditary claims 
to the succession, and was thus the man whom 
the army could most easily place in the office 



30 Neeo. TAJ). 37. 

His desperate malignity. Examples of his cruelty. 

of chieftain, and retain most securely there. 
His life, however, in the lofty station to which 
accident thus raised him, was one of continual 
folly, vice and crime. He lived generally at 
Rome, where he expended the immense revei 
nues that were at his command in the most 
wanton and senseless extravagance. In the 
earlier part of his career the object of much 
of his extravagance was the gratification of 
the people ; but after a time he began to seek 
only gratifications for himself, and at length 
he evinced the most wanton spirit of malig- 
nity and cruelty toward others. He seemed 
at last actually to hate the whole human spe- 
cies, and to take pleasure in teasing and tor- 
menting men, whenever an occasion of any 
kind occurred to afford him the opportunity. 
They were accustomed in those days to have 
spectacles and shows in vast amphitheaters 
which were covered, when the sun was hot, 
with awnings. Sometimes when an amphi- 
theater was crowded with spectators, and the 
heat of the sun was unusually powerful, Ca- 
ligula would order the awnings to be removed 
and the doors to be kept closed so as to pre- 
vent the egress of the people; and then he 
would amuse himself with the indications of 



A.D. 37.] Neeo's Mother. 31 

Feeding wild beasts with men. Branding. 

discomfort and suffering which so crowded a 
concourse in such an exposure wxmld necessa- 
rily exhibit. He kept wild animals for the 
combats which took place in these amphithe- 
aters, and when it was difficult to procure the 
flesh of sheep and oxen for them, he would 
feed them with men, throwing into their dens 
for this purpose criminals and captives. 
Some persons who offended him, he ordered to 
be branded in the face with hot irons, by 
which means they were not only subjected to 
cruel torture at the time, but were frightfully 
disfigured for life. Sometimes when the sons 
of noble or distinguished men displeased him,- 
or when under the influence of his caprice or 
malignity he conceived some feeling of ha- 
tred toward them, he would order them to be 
publicly executed, and he would require their 
parents to be present and witness the scene. 
At one time after such an execution he re- 
quired the wretched father of his victim to 
come and sup with him at his palace ; and 
while at supper he talked with his guest all 
the time, in a light, and jocular, and mirthful 
manner, in order to trifle with and insult the 
mental anguish of the sufferer. At another 
time when he had commanded a distinguished 



32 Nero. [A.D.37. 

Agrippina is implicated in a conspiracy. 

senator to be present at the execution of his 
son, the senator said that he would go, in obe- 
dience to the emperor's orders, but humbly' 
asked permission to shut his eyes at the mo- 
ment of the execution, that he might be spared 
the dreadful anguish of witnessing the dying 
struggles of his son. The emperor in reply 
immediately condemned the father to death 
for daring to make so audacious a proposal. 

Of course the connection of Agrippina, the 
mother of Nero, with such a sovereign as this, 
while it gave her a very high social position 
in the Roman community, could not contrib- 
ute much to her happiness. In fact all who 
were connected with Caligula in any way 
lived in continual terror, for so wanton and 
capricious was his cruelty, that all who were 
liable to come under his notice at all were 
in constant danger. Agrippina herself at 
one time incurred her brother's displeasure, 
though she was fortunate enough to escape 
with her life. Caligula discovered, or pre- 
tended to discover, a conspiracy against him, 
and he accused Agrippina and another of his 
sisters named Livilla of being implicated in 
it. Caligula sent a soldier to the leader of 
the conspiracy to cut off his head, and then 



A.D. 37.] Nero's Mother. 33 

She is banished with her sister to Pontia. 

he banished his sisters from Rome and shut 
them up in the island of Pontia, telling them 
when they went away, to beware, for he had 
swords for them as well as islands, in case of 
need. 

At length Caligula's terrible tyranny was 
brought to a sudden end by his assassination ; 
and Agrippina, in consequence of this event 
was not only released from her thraldom but 
raised to a still higher eminence than she had 
enjoyed before. The circumstances connected 
with these events will be related in the next 
chapter. 

C 



34 Nero. [A.D.40. 

Plots against Caligula. Cassius Chaerea. 



Chapter II. 
The Assassination of Caligula. 

THE emperor Caligula came to his death 
in the following manner : 

Of course his wanton and remorseless tyr- 
anny often awakened very deep feelings of 
resentment, and very earnest desires for re- 
venge in the hearts of those who suffered by 
it ; but yet so absolute and terrible was his 
power, that none dared to murmur or com- 
plain. The resentment, however, which the 
cruelty of the emperor awakened, burned the 
more fiercely for being thus restrained and 
suppressed, and many covert threats were 
made, and many secret plots were formed, 
from time to time, against the tyrant's life. 

Among others who cherished such designs, 
there was a man named Cassius Chaerea, an 
officer of the army, who, though not of high 
rank, was nevertheless a man of considerable 
distinction. He was a captain, or, as it was 
styled in those days, a centurion. His com- 
mand, therefore, was small, but it was in the 



A.D. 40.] Death of Caligula. 35 

Chaerea's bravery. His legion mutinies. 

praetorian cohort, as it was called, a sort of 
body-guard of the commander-in-chief, and 
consequently a very honorable corps. Chaerea 
was thus a man of considerable distinction on 
account of the post which he occupied, and 
his duties, as captain in the life guards, 
brought him very frequently into communica- 
tion with the emperor. He was a man of 
great personal bravery, too, and was on this 
account held in high consideration by the 
army. He had performed an exploit at one 
time, some years before, in Germany, which 
had gained him great fame. It war. at the 
time of the death of Augustus, the first em- 
peror. Some of the German legions, and 
among them one in which Chaerea was serv- 
ing, had seized upon the occasion to revolt 
They alledged many and grievous acts of op- 
pression as the grounds of their revolt, and 
demanded redress for what they had suffered, 
and security for the future. One of the first 
measures which they resorted to in the frenzy 
of the first outbreak of the rebellion, was to 
seize all the centurions in the camp, and to 
beat them almost to death. They gave them 
sixty blows each, one for each of their num- 
ber, and then turned them, bruised, wounded, 



36 Nero. [A.D. 40. 

Chserea escapes the mutineers. His appearance. 

and dying, out of the camp. Some they 
threw into the Rhine. They revenged them- 
selves thus on all the centurions but one. 
That one was Chorea. Chserea would not 
suffer himself to be taken by them, but seizing 
his sword he fought his way through the 
midst of them, slaying some and driving 
others before him, and thus made his escape 
from the camp. This feat gained him great 
renown. 

One might imagine from this account that 
Chaerea was a man of great personal superior- 
ity in respect to size and strength, inasmuch 
as extraordinary muscular power, as well as 
undaunted courage, would seem to be re- 
quired to enable a man to make his way 
against so many enemies. But this was not 
the fact. Chaerea was of small stature and 
of a slender and delicate form. He was 
modest and unassuming in his manners, too, 
and of a very kind and gentle spirit. , He 
was thus not only honored and admired for 
his courage, but he was generally beloved for 
the amiable and excellent qualities of his 
heart. 

The possession of such qualities, however, 
could not be expected to recommend him par- 



A.D. 40.] Death of Caligula. 37 

His just dealings displease the emperor. 

ticularly to the favor of the emperor. In fact, 
in one instance it had the contrary effect. 
Caligula assigned to the centurions of his 
guard, at one period, some duties connected 
with the collection of taxes. Chaerea, instead 
of practicing the extortion and cruelty com- 
mon on such occasions, was merciful and con- 
siderate, and governed himself strictly by 
the rules of law and of justice in his collec- 
tions. The consequence necessarily was that 
the amount of money received was somewhat 
diminished, and the emperor was displeased. 
The occasion was, however, not one of suffi- 
cient importance to awaken in the monarch's 
mind any very serious anger, and so, instead 
of inflicting any heavy punishment upon the 
offender, he contented himself with attempt- 
ing to tease and torment him with sundry 
vexatious indignities and annoyances. 

It is the custom sometimes, in camps, and 
at other military stations, for the commander 
to give every evening, what is called the pa- 
role or password, which consists usually of 
some word or phrase that is to be communi- 
cated to all the officers, and as occasion may 
require to all the soldiers, whom for any rea- 
son it may be necessary to send to and fro 



38 Nero. [A.D.40. 

Pass-words given by Nero to Chaerea. 

about the precincts of the camp during the 
night. The sentinels, also, all have the pass- 
word, and accordingly, whenever any man 
approaches the post of a sentinel, he is 
stopped and the parole is demanded. If the 
stranger gives it correctly, it is presumed that 
all is right, and he is allowed to pass on,— 
since an enemy or a spy would have no means 
of knowing it. 

Now, whenever it came to Chorea's turn to 
communicate the parole, the emperor was ac- 
customed to give him some ridiculous or inde- 
cent phrase, intended not only to be offensive 
to the purity of Chserea's mind, but designed, 
also, to exhibit him in a ridiculous light to 
the subordinate officers and soldiers to whom 
he would have to communicate it. Sometimes 
the password thus given was some word or 
phrase wholly unfit to be spoken, and some- 
times it was the name of some notorious and 
infamous woman ; but whatever it was, Chaer- 
ea was compelled by his duty as a soldier to 
deliver it to all the corps, and patiently to 
submit to the laughter and derision w T hich his 
communication awakened among the vile and 
wicked soldiery. 

If there was any dreadful punishment to be 



A.D. 40.] Death of Caligula. 39 

Accusation of Propedius. Quintilia's testimony. 

inflicted, or cruel deed of any kind to be per- 
formed, Caligula took great pleasure in as- 
signing the duty to Chserea, knowing how ab- 
horrent to his nature it must be. At one time 
a senator of great distinction named Prope- 
dius, was accused of treason by one of his 
enemies. His treason consisted, as the ac- 
cuser alledged, of having spoken injurious 
words against the emperor. Propedius de- 
nied that he had ever spoken such words. 
The accuser, whose name was Timidius, cited 
a certain Quintilia, an actress, as his witness. 
Propedius was accordingly brought to trial, 
and Quintilia was called upon before the 
judges to give her testimony. She denied 
that she had ever heard Propedius utter any 
such sentiment as Timidius attributed to him. 
Timidius then said that Quintilia was testify- 
ing falsely : he declared that she had heard 
Propedius utter such words, and demanded 
that she should be put to the torture to com- 
pel her to acknowledge it. The emperor 
acceded to this demand, and commanded 
Chaerea to put the actress to the torture. 

It is, of course, always difficult to ascertain 
the precise truth in respect to such transac- 
tions as those that are connected with plots 



40 Nero. [A.D. 40. 

Chaerea alarmed. Quintilia's private signal. 

and conspiracies against tyrants, since every 
possible precaution is, of course, taken by all 
concerned to conceal what is done. It is prob- 
able, however, in this case, that Propedius had 
cherished some hostile designs against Cali- 
gula, if he had not uttered injurious words, 
and that Quintilia was in some measure in 
his confidence. It is even possible that Chser- 
ea may have been connected with them in 
some secret design, for it is said that when he 
received the orders of Caligula to put Quin- 
tilia to the torture he was greatly agitated and 
alarmed. If he should apply the torture se- 
verely, he feared that the unhappy sufferer 
might be induced to make confessions or 
statements at least, which would bring de- 
struction on the men whom he most relied 
upon for the overthrow of Caligula. On the 
other hand, if he should attempt to spare her, 
the effect would be only to provoke the anger 
of Caligula against himself, without at all 
shielding or saving her. As, however, he was 
proceeding to the place of torture, in charge 
of his victim, with his mind in this state of 
anxiety and indecision, his fears were some- 
what relieved by a private signal given to 
him by Quintilia, by which she intimated to 



A.D. 40.] Death of Caligula. 41 

Quintilia is put to the torture in vain. 

him that lie need feel no concern, — that she 
would be faithful and true, and would reveal 
nothing, whatever might be done to her. 

This assurance, while it allayed in some 
degree Chaerea's anxieties and fears, must 
have greatly increased the mental distress 
which he endured at the idea of leading such 
a woman to the awful suffering which awaited 
her. He could not, however, do otherwise 
than to proceed. Having arrived at the place 
of execution, the wretched Quintilia was put 
to the rack. She bore the agony which she 
endured while her limbs were stretched on 
the torturing engine, and her bones broken, 
with patient submission, to the end. She was 
then carried, fainting, helpless, and almost 
dead, to Caligula, who seemed now satisfied. 
He ordered the unhappy victim of the torture 
to be taken away, and directed that Prope- 
dius should be acquitted and discharged. 

Of course while passing through this scene 
the mind of Chaerea was in a tumult of agita- 
tion and excitement, — the anguish of mind 
which he must have felt in his compassion for 
the sufferer, mingling and contending with 
the desperate indignation which burned in 
his bosom against the author of all these mis- 



42 Neeo. [A.D.40. 

Anger of Chaerea. His determination to destroy Caligula. 

eries. He was wrought up, in fact, to such a 
state of frenzy by this transaction, that as soon 
as it was over he determined immediately to 
take measures to put Caligula to death. This 
was a very bold and desperate resolution. 
Caligula was the greatest and most powerful 
potentate on earth. Chaerea was only a cap- 
tain of his guard, without any political influ- 
ence or power, and with no means whatever 
of screening himself from the terrible conse- 
quences which might be expected to follow 
from his attempt, whether it should succeed 
or fail. 

So thoroughly, however, was he now arous- 
ed, that he determined to brave every danger 
in the attainment of his end. He immediately 
began to seek out among the officers of the 
army such men as he supposed would be most 
likely to join him, — men of courage, resolu- 
tion, and faithfulness, and those who, from 
their general character or from the wrongs 
which they had individually endured from 
the government, were to be supposed specially 
hostile to Caligula's dominion. From among 
these men he selected a few, and to them he 
cautiously unfolded his designs. All approved 
of them. Some, it is true, declined taking 



A.D. 40.] Death of Caligula. 43 

Conspiracy formed. The confederates. Various opinions. 

any active part in the conspiracy, but they 
assured Chserea of their good wishes, and 
promised solemnly not to betray him. 

The number of the conspirators daily in- 
creased. There was, however, at their meet- 
ings for consultation, some difference of opin- 
ion in respect to the course to be pursued. 
Some were in favor of acting promptly and at 
once. The greatest danger which was to be 
apprehended, they thought, was in delay. As 
the conspiracy became extended, some one 
would at length come to the knowledge of it, 
they said, who would betray them. Others, 
on the other hand, were for proceeding cau- 
tiously and slowly. What they most feared 
was rash and inconsiderate action. It would 
be ruinous to the enterprise, as they main- 
tained, for them to attempt to act before their 
plans were fully matured. 

Chserea was of the former opinion. He was 
very impatient to have the deed performed. 
He was ready himself, he said, to perform it, 
at any time ; his personal duties as an officer 
of the guard, gave him frequent occasions of 
access to the emperor, and he was ready to 
avail himself of any of them to kill the mon- 
ster. The emperor went often, he said, to the 



44 Nero. [A.D. 40. 

Various plans proposed for destroying Caligula. 

capitol, to offer sacrifices, and he could easily 
kill him there. Or, if they thought that that 
was too public an occasion, he could have an 
opportunity in the palace, at certain religious 
ceremonies which the emperor was accustom- 
ed to perform there, and at which Chaerea 
himself was usually present. Or, he was 
ready to throw him down from a tower where 
he was accustomed to go sometimes for the 
purpose of scattering money among the popu- 
lace below. Ohaerea said that he could easily 
come up behind him on such an occasion, and 
hurl him suddenly over the parapet down to 
the pavement below. All these plans, how- 
ever, seemed to the conspirators too uncertain 
and dangerous, and Chserea's proposals were 
accordingly not agreed to. 

At length, the time drew near when Calig- 
ula was to leave Rome to proceed to Alexan- 
dria in Egypt, and the conspirators perceived 
that they must prepare to act, or else aban- 
don their design altogether. It had been 
arranged that there was to be a grand cele- 
bration at Rome previous to the emperor's 
departure. This celebration, which was to 
consist of games, and sports, and dramatic 
performances of various kinds, was to con- 



A.D. 41.] Death of Caligula. 45 

Final determination. The three days festival. 

tinue for three days, and the conspirators 
determined, after much consultation and de- 
bate, that Caligula should be assassinated on 
one of those days. 

After coming to this conclusion, however, 
in general, their hearts seemed to fail them 
in fixing the precise time for the perpetration 
of the deed, and two of the three days passed 
away accordingly without any attempt being 
made. At length, on the morning of the 
third day, Chserea called the chief conspira- 
tors together, and urged them very earnestly 
not to let the present opj>ortunity pass away. 
He represented to them how greatly they in- 
creased the danger of their attempts by such 
delays, and he seemed himself so full of de- 
termination and courage, and addressed them 
with so much eloquence and power, that he 
inspired them with his own resolution, and 
they decided unanimously to proceed. 

The emperor came to the theater that day 
at an unusually early hour, and seemed to be 
in excellent spirits and in an excellent humor. 
He was very complaisant to all around him, 
and very lively, affable, and gay. After per- 
forming certain ceremonies, by which it de- 
volved upon him to open the festivities of the 



46 Neko. [A.D.41. 

Brief conversation. The recess. Chaerea's duty. 

day, lie proceeded to his place, with his 
friends and favorites about him, and Chaerea, 
with the other officers that day on guard, at a 
little distance behind him. 

The performances were commenced, and 
every thing went on as usual until toward 
noon. The conspirators kept their plans pro- 
foundly secret, except that one of them, when 
he had taken his seat by the side of a distin- 
guished senator, asked him whether he had 
heard any thing new. The senator replied 
that he had not. " I can then tell you some- 
thing," said he, "which perhaps you have 
not heard, and that is, that in the piece which 
is to be acted to-day, there is to be repre- 
sented the death of a tyrant." " Hush !" said 
the senator, and he quoted a verse from Ho- 
mer, which meant, " Be silent, lest some Greek 
should overhear." 

It had been the usual custom of the emperor, 
at such entertainments, to take a little recess 
about noon, for rest and refreshments. It 
devolved upon Chserea to wait upon him at 
this time, and to conduct him from his place 
in the theater to an adjoining apartment in 
his palace which was connected with the 
theater, where there was provided a bath and 



A.D. 41.] Death of Caligula. 47 



The plan seems likely to fail. 



various refreshments. When the time ar- 
rived, and Chgerea perceived, as he thought, 
that the emperor was about to go, he himself 
went out, and stationed himself in a passage- 
way leading to the bath, intending to inter- 
cept and assassinate the emperor when he 
should come along. The emperor, however, 
delayed his departure, having fallen into 
conversation with his courtiers and friends, 
and finally he said that, on the whole, as it 
was the last day of the festival, he would not 
go out to the bath, but would remain in the 
theater; and then ordering refreshments to 
be brought to him there, he proceeded to dis- 
tribute them with great urbanity to the offi- 
cers around him. 

In the mean time, Chaerea was patiently 
waiting in the passage-way, with his sword 
by his side, all ready for striking the blow 
the moment that his victim should appear. 
Of course the conspirators who remained be- 
hind were in a state of great suspense and 
anxiety, and one of them, named Minucianus, 
determined to go out and inform Cha3rea of 
the change in Caligula's plans. He accord- 
ingly attempted to rise, but Caligula put his 
hand upon his robe, saying, " Sit still, my 



43 Neeo. [A.D. 41. 

Chaorea's ambuscade. Minucianus. 

friend. You shall go with me presently." 
Minucianus accordingly dissembled his anxi- 
ety and agitation of mind still a little longer, 
but presently, watching an opportunity when 
the emperor's attention was otherwise en- 
gaged, he rose, and, assuming an unconcerned 
and careless air, he walked out of the theater. 

He found Chserea in his ambuscade in the 
passage-way, and he immediately informed 
him that the emperor had concluded not to 
come out. Chserea and Minucianus were 
then greatly at a loss what to do. Some of 
the other conspirators, who had followed 
Minucianus out, now joined them, and a brief 
but very earnest and solemn consultation en- 
sued. After a moment's hesitation, Chserea 
declared that they must now go through with 
their work at all hazards, and he professed 
himself ready, if his comrades would sustain 
him in it, to go back to the theater, and stab 
the tyrant there in his seat, in the midst of 
his friends. Minucianus and the others con- 
curred in this design, and it was resolved 
immediately to execute it. 

The execution of the plan, however, in the 
precise form in which it had been resolved 
upon was prevented by a new turn which af- 



A.D. 41.] Death of Caligula. 49 

Adroit management of the conspirators. 

fairs had taken in the theater. For while 
Minucianus and the two or three conspirators 
who had accompanied him were debating in 
the passage-way, the others who remained* 
knowing that Chserea was expecting Caligula 
to go out, conceived the idea of attempting to 
persuade him to go, and thus to lead him into 
the snare which had been set for him. They 
accordingly gathered around, and without 
any appearance of concert or of eagerness, 
began to recommend him to go and take his 
bath as usual. He seemed at length disposed 
to yield to these persuasions, and rose from 
his seat; and then, the whole company at- 
tending and following him, he proceeded to- 
ward the doors which conducted to the pal- 
ace. The conspirators went before him, and 
under pretense of clearing the way for him 
they contrived to remove to a little distance 
all whom they thought would be most disposed 
to render him any assistance. The consulta- 
tions of Chserea and those who were with him 
in the inner passage-way were interrupted by 
the coming of this company. 

Among those who walked with the emperor 
at this time were his uncle Claudius and other 
distinguished relatives. Caligula advanced 

D 



50 Nero. L a -!>- 41 - 

The Asiatic boys. Chserea strikes Caligula down. 

along the passage, walking in company with 
these friends, and wholly unconscious of the 
fate that awaited him, but instead of going 
immediately toward the bath he turned aside 
first into a gallery or corridor which led into 
another apartment, where there were assem- 
bled a company of boys and girls, that had 
been sent to him from Asia to act and dance 
upon the stage, and who had just arrived. 
The emperor took great interest in looking at 
these performers, and seemed desirous of hav- 
ing them go immediately into the theater and 
let him see them perform. While talking on 
this subject Chserea and the other conspirators 
came into the apartment, determined now to 
strike the blow. 

Chserea advanced to the emperor, and 
asked him in the usual manner what should 
be the parole for that night. The emperor 
gave him in reply such an one as he had often 
chosen before, to insult and degrade him. 
Chserea instead of receiving the insult meekly 
and patiently in his usual manner, uttered 
words of anger and defiance in reply; and 
drawing his sword at the same instant he 
struck the emperor across the neck and felled 
him to the floor. Caligula filled the apart- 



A.D. 41.J Death of Caligula. 51 

End of a despot. General joy in the palace. 

ment with his cries of pain and terror ; the 
other conspirators rushed in and attacked him 
on all sides; his friends, — so far as the adhe- 
rents of such a man can be called friends, — 
fled in dismay. As for Caligula's uncle Clau- 
dius, it was not to have been expected that he 
would have rendered his nephew any aid, for 
he was a man of such extraordinary mental 
imbecility that he was usually considered as 
not possessed even of common sense ; and all 
the others who might have been expected to 
defend him, either fled from the scene, or 
stood by in consternation and amazement, 
leaving the conspirators to wreak their ven- 
geance on their wretched victim, to the full. 

In fact though while a despot lives and re- 
tains his power, thousands are ready to de- 
fend him and to execute his will, however 
much in heart they may hate and detest him, 
yet when he is dead, or when it is once cer- 
tain that he is about to die, an instantaneous 
change takes place and every one turns 
against him. The multitudes in and around 
the theater and the palace who had an hour 
before trembled before this mighty potentate, 
and seemed to live only to do his bidding, 
w r ere filled with joy to see him brought to the 



52 Nero. [A.D. 41. 

Savage exultation of the conspirators. 

dust. The conspirators, when the success of 
their plans and the death of their oppressor 
was once certain, abandoned themselves to 
the most extravagant joy. They cut and 
stabbed the fallen body again and again, as 
if they could never enough wreak their ven- 
geance upon it. They cut off pieces of the 
body and bit them with their teeth in their 
savage exultation and triumph. At length 
they left the body where it lay, and went forth 
into the city where all was now of course tu- 
mult and confusion. 

The body remained where it had fallen un- 
til late at night. Then some attendants of 
the palace came and conveyed it away. They 
were sent, it was said, by Csesonia, the wife 
of the murdered man. Csesonia had an infant 
daughter at this time, and she remained her- 
self with the child, in a retired apartment of 
the palace while these things were transpir- 
ing. Distracted with grief and terror at the 
tidings that she heard, she clung to her babe, 
and made the arrangements for the interment 
of the body of her husband without leaving 
its cradle. She imagined perhaps that there 
was no reason for supposing that she or the 
child were in any immediate danger, and ac- 



A.D. 41.J Death of Caligula. 



53 



Caesonia and her child. 



They are murdered. 




C-ESONIA. 



cordingly she took no measures toward ef- 
fecting an escape. If so she did not under- 
stand the terrible frenzy to which the con- 
spirators had been aroused, and for which the 
long series of cruelties and indignities which 
they had endured from her husband had pre- 
pared them. For at midnight one of them 
broke into her apartment, stabbed the mother 
in her chair, and taking the innocent infant 
from its cradle, killed it by beating its head 
against the wall. 



54 Nero. [A.D. 41. 

Supposed necessity for destroying the child. 

Atrocious as this deed may seem, it was not 
altogether wanton and malignant cruelty 
which prompted it. The conspirators in- 
tended by the assassination of Caligula not 
merely to wreak their vengeance on a single 
man, but to bring to an end a hated race of 
tyrants ; and they justified the murder of the 
wife and child by the plea that stern political 
necessity required them to exterminate the 
line, in order that no successor might subse- 
quently arise to re-establish the power and re- 
new the tyranny which they had brought to 
an end. The history of monarchies is contin- 
ually presenting us with instances of innocent 
and* helpless children sacrificed to such a 
supposed necessity as this. 



A.D.41.] Accession of Claudius. 55 

Ultimate design of the conspirators. 



Chapter III. 
The Accession of Claudius. 

IN the assassination of Caligula, the con- 
spirators who combined to perpetrate 
the deed, had a much deeper design than that 
of merely gratifying their personal resent- 
ment and rage against an individual tyrant. 
They wished to effect a permanent change in 
the government, by putting down the army 
from the position of supreme and despotic 
authority which it had assumed, and restor- 
ing the dominion to the Roman Senate, and 
to the other civil authorities of the city, as it 
had been exercised by them in former years. 
Of course, the death of Caligula was the com- 
mencement, not the end, of the great struggle. 
The whole country was immediately divided 
into two parties. There was the party of the 
Senate, and the party of the army ; and a 
long and bitter conflict ensued. It was for 
some time doubtful which would win the 
day. 

In fact, immediately after Caligula was 



56 Nero. [A.D.41. 

Effect produced by the tidings of Caligula's death. 

killed, and the tidings of his death began to 
spread about the palace and into the streets 
of the city, a considerable tumult arose, the 
precursor and earnest of the dissensions that 
were to follow. Upon the first alarm, a body 
of the emperor's guards that had been accus- 
tomed to attend upon his person, and whom 
he had strongly attached to himself by his 
lavish generosity in bestowing presents and 
rewards upon them, rushed forward to defend 
him, or if it should prove too late to defend 
him, to avenge his death. These soldiers ran 
toward the palace, and when they found that 
the emperor had been killed, they were furi- 
ous with rage, and fell upon all whom they 
met, and actually slew several men. Tid- 
ings came to the theater, and the word was 
spread from rank to rank among the people 
that the emperor was slain. The people did 
not, however, at first, believe the story. They 
supposed that the report was a cunning con- 
trivance of the emperor himself, intended to 
entrap them into some expression of pleasure 
and gratification, on their part, at his death, 
in order to give him an excuse for inflicting 
some cruel punishment upon them. The noise 
and tumult in the streets soon convinced them, 



A.D. 41.] Accession of Claudius. 57 

Chaerea and the conspirators secrete themselves. 

however, that something extraordinary 'had 
occurred ; they learned that the news of the 
emperor's death was really true, and almost 
immediately afterward they found, to their 
consternation, that the furious guards were 
thundering at the gates of the theater, and 
endeavoring to force their way in, in order to 
wreak their vengeance on the assembly, as if 
the spectators at the show were accomplices 
of the crime. 

In the mean time Chaerea and the other 
chief conspirators had fled to a secret place 
of retreat, where they now lay concealed. As 
soon as they had found that the object of their 
vengeance was really dead, and w T hen they 
had satisfied themselves with the pleasure of 
cutting and stabbing the lifeless body, they 
stole away to the house of one of their friends 
in the neighborhood, where they could lie for 
a time secreted in safety. The life-guards 
sought for them everywhere, but could not 
find them. The streets were filled with tu- 
mult and confusion. Rumors of every kind, 
false and true, spread in all directions, and 
increased the excitement. At length, how- 
ever, the consuls, who were the chief magis- 
trates of the republic, succeeded in organiz- 



7> 



58 ISTeeo. [A.D.41. 

The senate is convened. Two parties formed. 

ing a force and in restoring order. They took 
possession of the forum and of the capitol, 
and posted sentinels and guards along the 
streets. They compelled the emperor's guards 
to desist from their violence, and retire. They 
sent a herald clothed in mourning, into the 
theater, to announce officially to the people 
the event which had occurred, and to direct 
them to repair quietly to their homes. Hav- 
ing taken these preliminary measures they 
immediately called the Senate together, to 
deliberate on the emergency which had oc- 
curred, and to decide what should next be 
done. In the mean time the emperor's guards, 
having withdrawn from the streets of the city, 
retired to their camp and joined their com- 
rades. Thus there were two vast powers 
organized — that of the army in the camp, and 
that of the Senate in the city— each jealous 
of the other, and resolute in its determination 
not to yield, in the approaching conflict. 

In times of sudden and violent revolution 
like that which attended the death of Caligula, 
the course which public affairs are to take, 
and the question who is to rise and who is to 
fall, seem often to be decided by utter acci- 
dent. It was strikingly so in this instance, in 



A.D.41.] Accession of Claudius. 59 

Account of Claudius. His apparent imbecility. 

respect to the selection, on the part of the 
army, of the man who was to take the post of 
supreme command in the place of the mur- 
dered emperor. The choice fell on Claudius, 
Agrippina's uncle. It fell upon him, too, as 
it would seem, by the merest chance, in the 
following very extraordinary manner. 

Claudius, as has already been said, was 
Caligula's uncle ; and as Caligula and Agrip- 
pina were brother and sister, he was, of course, 
Agrippina's uncle too. He was at this time 
about fifty years of age, and he was univer- 
sally ridiculed and contemned on account of 
his great mental and personal inferiority. He 
was weak and ill-formed at his birth, so that 
even his mother despised him. She called 
him " an unfinished little monster," and when- 
ever she wished to express her contempt for 
any one in respect to his understanding, she 
used to say, " You are as stupid as my son 
Claudius." In a word, Claudius was extreme- 
ly unfortunate in every respect, so far as 
natural endowments are concerned. His 
countenance was very repulsive, his figure was 
ungainly, his manners were awkward, his 
voice was disagreeable, and he had an impedi- 
ment in his speech. In fact, he was consid- 



60 ITeeo. [A.D.41. 

Every one against him. Mode of teasing him. 

ered in his youth as almost an idiot. He was 
not allowed to associate with the other Roman 
boys of his age, but was kept apart, in some 
secluded portion of the palace, with women 
and slaves, where he was treated with so much 
cruelty and neglect that what little spirit na- 
ture had given him was crushed and destroy- 
ed. In fact, by common consent all seemed 
to take pleasure in teasing and tormenting 
him. Sometimes, when he was coming to the 
table at an entertainment, the other guests 
would combine to exclude him from the seats, 
in order to enjoy his distress as he ran about 
from one part of the table to another, endeav- 
oring to find a place. If they found him 
asleep they would pelt him with olives and 
dates, or awaken him with the blow of a rod 
or a whip ; and sometimes they would stealth- 
ily put his sandals upon his hands while he 
was asleep, in order that when he awoke sud- 
denly they might amuse themselves with see- 
ing him rub his face and eyes with them. 

After all, however, the inferiority of Clau- 
dius was not really so great as it seemed. He 
was awkward and ungainly, no doubt, to the 
last degree ; but he possessed some consider- 
able capacity for intellectual pursuits and at- 



A.D.41.] Accession of Claudius. 61 



His situation and position at court. 



tainments, and as lie was pretty effectually 
driven away from society by the jests and 
ridicule to which he was subjected, he devo- 
ted a great deal of time in his retirement to 
study, and to other useful pursuits. He made 
considerable progress in the efforts which he 
thus made to cultivate his mind. He, how- 
ever, failed to acquire the respect of those 
around him ; and as he grew up he seemed to 
be considered utterly incapable of performing 
any useful function ; and during the time 
when his nephew Caligula was emperor, he 
remained at court, among the other nobles, 
but still neglected and despised by all of 
them. It is said that he probably owed the 
preservation of his life to his insignificance, 
as Caligula would probably have found some 
pretext for destroying him, if he had not 
thought him too spiritless and imbecile to 
form any ambitious plans. In fact, Claudius 
said himself afterward, when he became em- 
peror, that a great part of his apparent sim- 
plicity was feigned, as a measure ot-pfudence, 
to protect himself from injury. When Clau- 
dius grew up he was married several times. 
The wife who was living with him at the time 
of Caligula's death was his third wife ; her 



62 Neeo. [A.D.41. 

The wives of Claudius. His son strangled by a pear. 

name was Valeria Messalina. She was his 
cousin. Claudius and Messalina had one 
child — a daughter, named Octavia. Claudius 
had been extremely unhappy in his connec- 
tion with the wives preceding Messalina. He 
had quarreled with them and been divorced 
from them both. He had had a daughter by 
one of these wives and a son by the other. 
The son was suddenly killed by getting choked 
with a small pear. He had been throwing it 
into the air and attempting to catch it in his 
mouth as it came down, when at last it slipped 
down into his throat and strangled him. As 
for the daughter, Claudius was so exasperated 
with her mother at the time of his divorce 
from her, that he determined to disown and 
reject the child ; so he ordered the terrified 
girl to be stripped naked, and to be sent and 
laid down in that condition at her wretched 
mother's door. 

Claudius, as has already been stated, was 
present with Caligula at the theater, on the 
last day of the spectacle, and followed him 
into the palace when he went to look at the 
Asiatic captives ; so that he was present, or at 
least very near, at the time of his nephew's 
assassination. As might have been expected 



A.D. 41.] Accession of Claudius. 63 

Claudius terrified. His hiding place. 

from what has been said of his character, he 
was overwhelmed with consternation and ter- 
ror at the scene, and was utterly incapacitated 
from taking any part, either for or against the 
conspirators. He stole away in great fright, 
and hid himself behind the hangings in a dark 
recess in the palace. Here he remained for 
some time, listening in an agony of anxiety 
and suspense to the sounds which he heard 
around him. He could hear the cries and the 
tumult in the streets, and in the passages of 
the palace. Parties of the guards, in going 
to and fro, passed by the place of his retreat 
from time to time, alarming him with the 
clangor of their weapons, and their furious 
exclamations and outcries. At one time peep- 
ing stealthily out, he saw a group of soldiers 
hurrying along with a bleeding head on the 
point of a pike. It was the head of a promi- 
nent citizen of Rome whom the guards had 
intercepted and killed, supposing him to be 
one of the conspirators. This spectacle greatly 
increased Claudius's terror. He was wholly 
in the dark in respect to the motives and the 
designs of the men who had thus revolted 
against his nephew, and it was of course im- 
possible for him to know how he himself 



64 



Nero. 



[A.D. 41. 



He is discovered by a soldier. 



would be regarded by either party. He did 
not dare, therefore, to surrender himself to 
either, but remained in his concealment, suf- 
fering great anxiety, and utterly unable to 
decide what to do. 

At length, while he was in this situation of 
uncertainty and terror, a common soldier of 
the guards, named Epirius, who happened to 
pass that way, accidentally saw his feet be- 
neath the hangings, and immediately, pulling 




DISCOVERY OF CLAUDIUS. 



A.D. 41.] Accession of Claudius. 6c 

Claudius proclaimed emperor. His surprise. 

the hangings aside, dragged him out to view. 
Claudius supposed now, of course, that his 
hour was come. He fell on his knees in an 
agony of terror, and begged the soldier to 
spare his life. The soldier, when he found 
that his prisoner was Claudius, the uncle of 
Caligula, raised him from the ground and sa- 
luted him emperor. As Caligula left no son, 
Epirius considered Claudius as his nearest 
relative, and consequently as the heir. Epir- 
ius immediately summoned others of the 
guard to the place, saying that he had found 
the new emperor, and calling upon them to 
assist in conveying him to the camp. The 
soldiers thus summoned procured a chair, and 
having placed the astonished Claudius in it, 
they raised the chair upon their shoulders, and 
began to convey it away. As they bore him 
thus along the streets, the people who saw 
them supposed that they were taking him to 
execution, and they lamented his unhappy 
fate. Claudius himself knew not what to be- 
lieve. He could not but hope that his life 
was to be saved, but then he could not wholly 
dispel his fears. 

In the mean time, the soldiers went steadily 
forward with their burden. When one set of 



66 Neko. [A.D. 41. 

He is borne to the camp and proclaimed emperor. 

bearers became fatigued, they set down the 
chair, and others relieved them. No one mo- 
lested them, or attempted to intercept them in 
their progress, and at length they reached the 
camp. Claudius was well received by the 
whole body of the army. The officers held a 
consultation that night, and determined to 
make him emperor. At first he was extremely 
unwilling to accept the proffered honor, but 
they urged it upon him, and he was at length 
induced to accept it. Thus the army was once 
more provided with a head, and prepared to 
engage anew in its conflict with the civil au- 
thorities of the city. 

The particulars of the conflict that ensued 
we can not here describe. It is sufficient to 
say that the army prevailed, and that Clau- 
dius soon found himself in full possession of 
the power from which his nephew had been 
so suddenly deposed. 

One of the first measures which the new 
emperor adopted, was to recall Agrippina 
from her banishment at Pontia, where Ca- 
ligula had confined her, and restore her to her 
former position in Home. Her husband, 
Brazenbeard, died about this time, and young 
JBrazenbeard, her son, afterward called Nero, 



A.D. 41.] Accession of Claudius. 67 

Agrippina recalled. Messalina. 

the subject of this history, was three years 
old. Octavia, the daughter of Claudius and 
Messalina, was a little younger. 

Messalina, the wife of Claudius, hated 
Agrippina, considering her, as she did, her 
rival and enemy. The favor which Claudius 
showed to Agrippina, in recalling her from 
her banishment, and treating her with con- 
sideration and favor at Rome, only inflamed 
still more Messalina's hatred. She could not, 
however, succeed in inducing Claudius to 
withdraw his protection from his niece ; for 
Claudius, though almost entirely subject to 
the influence and control of his wife in most 
things, seemed fully determined not to yield 
to her wishes in this. Agrippina continued, 
therefore, to live at Rome, in high favor with 
the court, for several years, — her little son 
advancing soil the time in age and in matur- 
ity, until at length he became twelve years 
old. At this time, another great change took 
place in his own and his mother's condition. 
Messalina became herself, by her wickedness 
and infatuation, the means of raising her rival 
into her own place as wife of the emperor. 
The result was accomplished in the following 
manner. 



68 Neko. [A.D.47. 

Messalina's intrigues. Her hatred of Silanus. 

Messalina had long been a very dissolute 
and wicked woman, having been accustomed 
to give herself up to criminal indulgences and 
pleasures of every kind, in company with fa- 
vorites whom she selected from time to time 
among the courtiers around her. For a time 
she managed these intrigues with some de- 
gree of caution and secrecy, in order to con- 
ceal her conduct from her husband. She 
gradually, however, became more and more 
open and bold. She possessed a great ascen- 
dency over the mind of her husband, and 
could easily deceive him, or induce him to 
do whatever she pleased. She persuaded 
him to confer honors and rewards in a very 
liberal manner upon those whom she favored, 
and to degrade, and sometimes even to de- 
stroy, those who displeased her. She would 
occasionally resort to very cunning artifices 
to accomplish her ends. For example, she 
conceived at one time a violent hatred against 
the husband of her mother. His name was 
Silanus. He was not the father of Messalina, 
but a second husband of Messalina's mother ; 
and, being young and attractive in person, 
Messalina at first loved him, and intended to 
make him one of her favorites and compan- 



A.D. 47.] Accession of Claudius. 69 

Plan for destroying Silanus. Narcissus's pretended dream. 

ions. Silanus, however, would not accede to 
her wishes, and her love for him was then 
changed into hatred and thirst for revenge. 
She accordingly determined on his destruc- 
tion ; but as she knew that it would be diffi- 
cult to induce Claudius to proceed to extremi- 
ties against him, on account of his intimate 
relationship to the family, she contrived a 
very artful plot to accomplish her ends. It 
was this : 

She sent word to Silanus, on a certain eve- 
ning, that the emperor wished him to come 
to the palace, to his private apartment, the 
next morning, at a very early hour. The em- 
peror wished to See him, the messenger said, 
on business of importance. 

Just before the time which had been ap- 
pointed for Silanus to appear, a certain officer 
of the household, named Narcissus, whom 
Messalina had engaged to assist her in her 
plot, came into the emperor's apartment, with 
an anxious countenance, and in a very hur- 
ried manner, and said to Claudius, whom he 
waked out of sleep by his coming, that he 
had had a very frightful dream — one which 
he deemed it his duty to make known to his 
master without any delay. He dreamed, he 



70 Eeeo. [A.D.47. 

Messalina's confirmation of it. Claudius alarmed. 

said, that a plot had been formed for assassi- 
nating the emperor ; that Silanus was the 
contriver of it, and that he was coming early 
that morning to carry his design into effect. 
Messalina, who was present with her husband 
at the time, listened to this story with well- 
feigned anxiety and agitation, and then de- 
clared, with a countenance of great mysteri- 
ousness and solemnity, that she had had 
precisely the same dream for two or three 
nights in succession, but that, not being will- 
ing to do Silanus an injury, or to raise any 
unjust suspicions against him, she had thus 
far forborne to speak of the subject to her 
husband. She was, however, now convinced, 
she said, that Silanus was really entertaining 
some treasonable designs, and that the dreams 
were tokens sent from heaven to warn the 
emperor of his danger. 

Claudius, who was of an extremely timid 
and nervous temperament, was very much 
alarmed by these communications ; and his 
terrors were greatly increased by the appear- 
ance of a servant who announced to him at 
that moment that Silanus was then coming in. 
The coming of Silanus to the palace at that 
unseasonable hour was considered by the em- 



A.D. 47.] Accession of Claudius. 71 

Silanus is executed. Unbounded influence of Messalina. 

peror as full confirmation of the dreams which 
had been related to him, and as proof of the 
guilt of the accused ; and under the impulse 
of the sudden passion and fear which this con- 
viction awakened in his mind, he ordered 
Silanus to be seized and led away to im- 
mediate execution. These commands were 
obeyed. Silanus was hurried away and dis- 
patched by the swords of the soldiers, without 
ever knowing what the accusation was that 
had been made against him. 

Thus Messalina succeeded by artifice and 
cunning in accomplishing her ends, in cases 
where she could not rely on her direct influ- 
ence upon the mind of the emperor. In one 
way or the other she almost always effected 
whatever she undertook, and gradually came 
to exercise almost supreme control. "Whom 
she would she raised up, and whom she would 
she put down. In the mean time she lived 
herself, a life of the most guilty indulgence 
and pleasure. For a long time she concealed 
her wickedness from the emperor. He was 
very easily deceived, and though Messalina's 
character was perfectly well known to others, 
he himself continued blind to her guilt. At 
length, however, she began to grow more and 



n Nero. [A.D. 47. 

Caius Silius. Messalina's attachment to him. 

more bold. She became satiated, as one of her 
historians says of her, with the common and 
ordinary forms of vice, and wished for some- 
thing new and unusual to give piquancy and 
life to her sensations. At length, however, she 
went one step too far, and brought upon her- 
self in consequence of it a terrible destruction. 
It was about seven years after the accession 
of Claudius that the event occurred. The fa- 
vorite of Messalina at this time was a young 
Roman senator named Caius Silius. Silius 
was a very distinguished young nobleman, 
and a man of handsome person and of very 
graceful and accomplished manners and ad- 
dress. He was in fact a very general favor- 
ite, and Messalina, when she first saw him, 
conceived a very strong affection for him. 
He was, however, already married to a beau- 
tiful Roman lady named Junia Silana. Sila- 
na had been, and was still at this time, an in- 
timate friend of Agrippina, Zero's mother; 
though in subsequent times they became bit- 
ter enemies. Messalina made no secret of 
her love for Silius. She visited him freely at 
his house, and received his visits in return ; 
she accompanied him to public places, evin- 
cing everywhere her strong regard for him in 



A.D. 47.] Accession of Claudius. 73 

Hesitation of Silius. His decision. Claudius. 

the most undisguised and open manner. At 
length she proposed to him to divorce his wife, 
in order that she herself might enjoy his soci- 
ety without any limitation or restraint. Silius 
hesitated for a time about complying with 
these proposals. He was well aware that he 
must necessarily incur great danger, either by 
complying or by refusing to comply with 
them. To accede to the empress's proposals, 
would be of course to place himself in a posi- 
tion of extreme peril ; and the fate of Silanus 
was a warning to him of what he had to fear 
from her wrath, in case of a refusal. He 
concluded that the former danger was on the 
whole the least to be apprehended, and he 
accordingly divorced his wife, and gave him- 
self up wholly to Messalina's will. 

This arrangement being made, all things 
for a time went on smoothly and well. Clau- 
dius himself lived a very secluded life, and 
paid very little attention to his wife's pursuits 
or pleasures. He lived sometimes in retirement 
in his palace, devoting his time to his studies, 
or to the plans and measures of government. 
He seems to have honestly desired to promote 
the welfare and prosperity of the republic, 
and he made many useful regulations and 



74 Nero. [A.D.47. 

Public works at Ostia. The obelisk. Immense ship. 

laws which promised to be conducive to this 
end. Sometimes he was absent for a season 
from the city, — visiting fortresses and en- 
campments, or inspecting the public works, 
such as aqueducts and canals, which were in 
progress of construction. He was particularly 
interested in certain operations which he 
planned and conducted at the mouths of the 
Tiber for forming a harbor there. The place 
was called Ostia, that word in the Latin 
tongue denoting mouths. To form a port 
there he built two long piers, extending them 
in a curvilinear form into the sea, so as to in- 
close a large area of water between them, 
where ships could lie at anchor in safety. 
Light-houses were built at the extremities of 
these piers. It is a curious circumstance that 
in forming the foundation of one of these 
piers, the engineers whom Claudius employed 
sunk an immense ship which Caligula had 
formerly caused to be built for the purpose of 
transporting an obelisk from Egypt to Rome, 
■ — the obelisk which now stands in front of 
St. Peter's Church, and is the admiration an|L 
wonder of all visitors to Rome. As the obelisj; 
was formed of a single stone, a vessel of a very 
large size and of an unusual construction was 






AJD. 47.] Accession of Claudius. 75 

Messalina continues her wicked career. 

necessary for the conveyance of it ; and when 
this ship had once delivered its monstrous 
burden, it had no longer any useful function 
to perforin on the surface of the sea, and the 
engineers accordingly filled it with stones and 
gravel, and sunk it at the mouth of the Tiber, 
to form part of the foundation of one of Clau- 
dius's piers. As it is found that there is no 
perceptible decay, even for centuries, in tim- 
ber that is kept constantly submerged in the 
water of the sea, it is not impossible that the 
vast hulk, unless marine insects have devoured 
it and carried it away, lies imbedded where 
Claudius placed it, still. 

While the emperor was engaged in these 
and similar pursuits and occupations, Messa- 
lina went on in her career of dissipation and 
indulgence from bad to worse, growing more 
and more bold and open every day. She 
lived in a constant round of entertainments 
and of gayety — sometimes receiving com- 
panies of guests at her own palace, and some- 
times making visits with a large retinue of 
attendants and friends, at the house of Silius. 
Of course, every one paid court to Silius, and 
assumed, in their intercourse with him, every 
appearance that they entertained for him the 



76 Nero. [A.D.47. 

Silius intoxicated with his elevation. 

most friendly regard. It is always so with 
the favorites of the great. While in heart 
they are hated and despised, in form and ap- 
pearance they are caressed and applauded. 
Silius was intoxicated with the emotions that 
the giddy elevation to which he had arrived 
so naturally inspired. He was not, however, 
wholly at his ease. He could not but be aware 
that lofty as his position was, it was the brink 
of a precipice that he stood upon. Still he 
shut his eyes in a great measure to his danger 
and went blindly on. The catastrophe, which 
came very suddenly at last, will form the 
subject of the next chapter. 



A.D. 48.] Fate of Messalina. 77 

Silius forms a scheme for making himself emperor. 



Chapter IV. 
The Fate of Messalina. 

AS might naturally have been expected, 
there were two very different emotions 
awakened in the mind of Silius by the situ- 
ation in which he found himself placed with 
Messalina, — one was ambition, and the other 
was fear. Finding himself suddenly raised 
to the possession of so high a degree of con- 
sideration and influence, it was natural that 
he should look still higher, and begin to wish 
for actual and official power. And then, on 
the other hand, his uneasiness at the dangers 
that he was exposed to by remaining as he 
was, increased every day. At length a plan 
occurred to him which both these consider- 
ations urged him to adopt. The plan was to 
murder Claudius, and then to marry Messa- 
lina, and make himself emperor in Claudius's 
place. By the accomplishment of this design 
he would effect, he thought, a double object. 
He would at once raise himself to a post of 
real and substantial power, and also, at the 



78 Nero. [A.D. 48. 

He proposes his plan to Messalina. 

same time place himself in a position of se- 
curity. He resolved to propose this scheme 
to Messalina. 

Accordingly, on the first favorable oppor- 
tunity, he addressed the empress on the sub- 
ject, and cautiously made known his design. 
"I wish to have you wholly mine," said he, 
" and although the emperor is growing old, 
we can not safely wait for his death. We are, 
in fact, continually exposed to danger. We 
have gone quite too far to be safe where we 
are, and by taking the remaining steps neces- 
sary to accomplish fully our ends we shall 
only be completing what we have begun, and 
by so doing, far from incurring any new pen- 
alties, we shall be taking the only effectual 
method to protect ourselves from the dangers 
which impend over us and threaten us now. 
Let us, therefore, devise some means to re- 
move the emperor out of our way. I will 
then be proclaimed emperor in his place, and 
. be married to you. The power which you 
now enjoy will then come back to you again, 
undiminished, and under such circumstances 
as will render it permanently secure to you. 
To accomplish this will be very easy ; for the 
emperor, superannuated, infirm, and stupid 



A.D. 48.] Fate of Messalina. 79 

Messalina's reply. Her motives. Her proposal. 

as he is, can not protect himself against any 
well-planned arid vigorous attempt which we 
may make to remove him ; though, if we re- 
main as we are, and any accidental cause 
should arouse him from his lethargy, we may 
expect to find him vindictive and furious 
against us to the last degree." 

Messalina listened to this proposal with 
great attention and interest, but so far as re- 
lated to the proposed assassination of the em- 
peror she did not seem inclined to assent to it. 
Her historian says that she was not influ- 
enced in this decision by any remaining senti- 
ments of conjugal affection, or by conscientious 
principle of any kind, but by her distrust of 
Silius, and her unwillingness to commit her- 
self so entirely into his power. She preferred 
to keep him dependent upon her, rather than 
to make herself dependent upon him. She 
liked the plan, however, of being married to 
him, she said, and would consent to that, even 
while the emperor remained alive. And so if 
Silius would agree to it, she was ready, she 
added, the next time that the emperor went 
to Ostia, to have the ceremony performed. 

That a wife and a mother, however unprin- 
cipled and corrupt, should make, under such 



80 Nero. [A.D. 48. 

Audacity of MessaliDa in this proposal. 

circumstances, a proposal like this of Messa- 
lina's, is certainly very extraordinary; and to 
those who do not know to what extremes of 
recklessness and infatuation, the irresponsible 
despots that have arisen from time to time to 
rule mankind, have often pushed their wicked- 
ness and crime, it must seem wholly incred- 
ible. The Roman historian who has recorded 
this narrative, assures us, that it was the very 
audacity of this guilt that constituted its 
charm in Messalina's eyes. She had become 
weary of, and satiated with, all the ordinary 
forms of criminal indulgence and pleasure. 
The work of deceiving and imposing upon her 
husband, in order to secure for herself the 
gratifications which she sought, was for a 
time sufficient to give zest and piquancy to 
her pleasures. But he was so easily de 
ceived, and she had been accustomed to de- 
ceive him so long, that it now no longer 
afforded to her mind any stimulus or excite- 
ment to do it in any common way. But the 
idea of being actually married to another man 
while he was absent at a short distance from 
the city, would be something striking and 
new, which would vary, she thought, the dull 
monotony of the common course of sin. 



A.JD. 48.] Fate of Messalina. 81 



The fal^e marriage is celebrated. 



The proposed marriage was finally deter- 
mined upon, and the mock ceremony, for such 
a ceremony could, of course, have no legal 
force, was duly performed at a time when 
Claudius was absent at Ostia, inspecting the 
works which were in progress there. How far 
the pretended marriage was open and public 
in the actual celebration of it, is not very cer- 
tain ; but the historians say that it was con- 
ducted with all the usual ceremonies, and 
was attended by the ifeual witnesses. The 
service was performed by the augur, a sort 
of sacerdotal officer, on whom the duty of 
conducting such solemnities properly de- 
volved. Messalina and Silius, each in their 
turn, repeated the words pertaining respec- 
tively to the bridegroom and the bride. The 
usual sacrifice to the gods was then made, 
and a nuptial banquet followed, at which 
there passed between the new married pair 
the caresses and endearments usual on such 
occasions. All things in a word were con- 
ducted, from the beginning to the end, as in 
a real and honest wedding, and whether the 
scene thus enacted was performed in public 
as a serious transaction, or at some private 
entertainment as a species of sport, it created 

F 



82 JSTebo. [A.D.-48. 

Indignation of the emperor's friends. 

a strong sensation among all who witnessed 
it, and the news of it soon spread abroad and 
became very generally known. 

The more immediate friends of Claudius 
were very indignant at such a proceeding. 
They conferred together, uttering to each 
other many murmurings and complaints, and 
anticipating the worst results and conse- 
quences from what had occurred. Silius, 
they said, was an ambitious and dangerous 
man, and the audacious deed which he had 
performed was the prelude, they believed, to 
some deep ulterior design. They feared for 
the safety of Claudius ; and as they knew very 
well that the downfall of the emperor would 
involve them too in ruin, they were naturally 
much alarmed. It was, however, very diffi- 
cult for them to decide what to do. 

If they were to inform the emperor of Mes- 
salina's proceedings, they considered it wholly 
uncertain what effect the communication would 
have upon him. Like almost all weak-minded 
men, he was impulsive and capricious in the 
extreme ; and whether, on a communication 
being made to him, he would receive it with 
indifference and unconcern, or, in case his 
anger should be aroused, whether it would 



A.D. 4S.] Fate of Messalina. 83 

Plot formed for Messalina's destruction. 

expend itself upon Messalina or upon those 
who informed him against her, it was wholly 
impossible to foresee. 

At length, after various consultations and 
debates, a small number of the courtiers who 
were most determined in their detestation of 
Messalina and her practices, leagued them- 
selves together, and resolved upon a course of 
procedure by which they hoped, if possible, to 
effect her destruction. The leader of this 
company was Callistus, one of the officers of 
Claudius's household. He was one of the 
men who had been engaged with Chserea in 
the assassination of Caligula. Narcissus was 
another. This was the same Narcissus that is 
mentioned in the last chapter, as the artful 
contriver, with Messalina, of the death of Si- 
lanus. Pallas was the name of a third con- 
spirator. He was a confidential friend and 
favorite of Claudius, and was very jealous, 
like the rest, of the influence which Silius, 
through Messalina, exercised over his master. 
These were the principal confederates, though 
there were some others joined with them. 

The great object of the hostility of these 
men, seems to have been Silius, rather than 
Messalina. This, in fact, would naturally be 



84 Neko. [A.D.48. 

Plans and arrangements of the conspirators. 

supposed to be the case, since it was Silius 
rather than Messalina who was their rival. 
Some of them appear to have hated Messalina 
on her own account, but with the others there 
was apparently no wish to harm the empress, 
if any other way could be found of reaching 
Silius. In fact, in the consultations which 
were held, one plan which was proposed was 
to go to Messalina, and without evincing any 
feelings of unkindness or hostility toward her, 
to endeavor to persuade her to break off her 
connection with her favorite. This plan was, 
however, soon overruled. The plotters thought 
that it would be extremely improbable that 
Messalina would listen to any such proposition, 
and in case of her rejection of it, if it were 
made, her anger would be aroused strongly 
against them for making it : and then, even 
if she should not attempt to take vengeance 
upon them for their presumption, she would 
at any rate put herself effectually upon her 
guard against any thing else which they 
should attempt to do. The plan of separating 
Messalina and Silius was, therefore, abandon- 
ed, and the determination resolved upon to 
take measures for destroying them both to- 
gether. 



A.D. 48.] Fate of Messalina. 85 

Their hesitation. Calpurnia. Motives addressed to her. 

The course which the confederates decided 
to pursue in. order to effect their object, was 
to proceed to Ostia, where Claudius still re- 
mained, and there make known to him what 
Messalina and Silius had done, and endeavor 
to convince him that this audacious conduct 
on their part was only the prelude to open 
violence against the life of the emperor. It 
would seem, however, that no one of them 
was quite willing to take upon himself the of- 
fice of making such a communication as this, 
in the first instance, to such a man. They did 
not know how he would receive it, — or against 
whom the first weight of his resentment and 
rage would fall. Finally, after much hesita- 
tion and debate, they concluded to employ a 
certain female for the purpose, — a courtesan 
named Calpurnia. Calpurnia was a favorite 
and companion of Claudius, and as such they 
thought she might perhaps have an opportu- 
nity to approach him with the subject under 
such circumstances as to diminish the danger. 
At any rate, Calpurnia was easily led by such 
inducements as the conspirators laid before 
her, to undertake the commission. They not 
only promised her suitable rewards, but they 
appealed also to the jealousy and hatred which 



86 Nebo. [A.D.48. 

Calpurnia and Cleopatra undertake their ta^k. 

such a woman would naturally feel toward 
Messalina, who, being a wife, while Calpurnia 
was only a companion and favorite, would 
of course be regarded as a rival and enemy. 
They represented to Calpurnia how entirely 
changed for the better her situation would be, 
if Messalina could once be put out of the way. 
There would then, they said, be none to inter- 
fere with her ; but her influence and ascend- 
ency over the emperor's mind would be estab- 
lished on a permanent and lasting footing. 

Calpurnia was very easily led by these in- 
ducements to undertake the commission. 
There was another courtesan named Cleo- 
patra, who, it was arranged, should be at hand 
when Calpurnia made her communication, 
to confirm the truth of it, should any confir- 
mation seem to be required. The other con- 
spirators, also, were to be near, ready to be 
called in and to act as occasion might require, 
in case Calpurnia and Cleopatra should find 
that their statement was making the right im- 
pression. Things being all thus arranged the 
party proceeded to Ostia to carry their plans 
into execution. 

In the mean time Messalina and Silius, 
wholly unconscious of the danger, gave them- 



A.D. 48.] Fate of Messalina. 87 

Messalina's festival in the palace gardens. 

selves up with greater and greater boldness 
and unconcern to their guilty pleasures. On 
the day when Callistus and his party went to 
Ostia she was celebrating a festival at her 
palace with great gayety and splendor. It 
was in the autumn of the year, and the fes- 
tival was in honor of the season. In the 
countries on the Mediterranean the gathering 
of grapes and the pressing of the juice for 
wine, is the great subject of autumnal rejoic- 
ings ; and Messalina had arranged a festival 
in accordance with the usual customs, in the 
gardens of the palace. A wine-press had 
been erected, and grapes were gathered and 
brought to it. The guests whom Messalina 
had invited were assembled around ; some 
were dancing about the wine-press, some were 
walking in the alleys, and some were seated 
in the neighboring bowers. They were dress- 
ed in fancy costumes, and their heads were 
adorned with garlands of flowers. There was 
a group of dancing girls who were engaged 
as performers on the occasion, to dance for 
the amusement of the company, in honor of 
Bacchus, the god of wine. These girls were 
dressed, so far as they were clothed at all, in 
robes made of the skins of tigers, and their 



88 Heeo. [A.D.48. 

Oalpurnia's interview with Claudius at Ostia. 

heads were crowned with flowers. Messalina 
herself, however, was the most conspicuous 
object among the gay throng. She w^as robed 
in a manner to display most fully the graces 
of her person ; her long hair waving loosely 
in the wind. She had in her hand a symbol, 
or badge, called the thyrsus, which was an 
ornamented staff, or pole, surmounted with a 
carved representation of a bunch of grapes, 
and with other ornaments and emblems. The 
thyrsus was always used in the rites and fes- 
tivities celebrated in honor of Bacchus. Silius 
himself, dressed like the rest in a fantastic 
and theatrical costume, danced by the side of 
Messalina, in the center of a ring of dancing 
girls which was formed around them. 

In the mean time, while this gay party 
were thus enjoying themselves in the palace 
gardens at Rome, a very different scene was 
enacting at Ostia. Calpurnia, in her secret 
interview with Claudius, seizing upon a mo- 
ment which seemed to her favorable for her 
purpose, kneeled down before him and made 
the communication with which she had been 
charged. She told him of Messalina's con- 
duct, and informed him particularly how she 
had at last crowned the dishonor of her hus- 




•:^-S"' 



A.D. 48.] Fate of Messalina. 91 



Claudius is exceedingly terrified. 



band by openly marrying Silius, or at least 
pretending to do so. " Tour friends believe," 
slie added, " that she and Silius entertain still 
more criminal designs, and that your life will 
be sacrificed unless you immediately adopt 
vigorous and decided measures to avert the 
danger." 

Claudius was very much amazed, and was 
also exceedingly terrified at this communica- 
tion . He trembled and turned pale, then looked 
wild and excited, and began to make inqui- 
ries in an incoherent and distracted manner. 
Calpurnia called in Cleopatra to confirm her 
story. Cleopatra did confirm it, of course, in 
the fullest and most unqualified manner. 
The effect which was produced upon the mind 
of the emperor seemed to be exactly what the 
conspirators had desired. He evinced no dis- 
position to justify or to defend Messalina, or 
to be angry with Calpurnia and Cleopatra for 
making such charges against her. His mind 
seemed to be wholly absorbed with a sense 
of the dangers of his situation, and Narcissus 
was accordingly sent for to come in. 

Narcissus, when appealed to, acknowledged, 
though with well-feigned reluctance and hesi- 
tation, the truth of what Calpurnia had de- 



92 Neeo. [A.D.48. 

The statement of Narcissus. Council called. 

clared, and he immediately began to apolo- 
gize for his own remissness in not having 
before made the case known. He spoke with 
great moderation of Messalina, and also of 
Silius, as if his object were to appease rather 
than to inflame the anger of the emperor. 
He however admitted, he said, that it was 
absolutely necessary that something decisive 
should be done. " Your wife is taken from 
you," said he, " and Silius is master of her. 
The next thing will be that he will be master 
of the republic. He may even already have 
gained the Praetorian guards over to his side, 
in which case all is lost. It is absolutely ne- 
cessary that some immediate and decisive ac- 
tion should be taken." 

Claudius, in great trepidation, immediately 
called together such of his prominent council- 
lors and friends as were at hand at Ostia, to 
consult on what was to be done. Of course, 
it was principally the conspirators themselves 
that appeared at this council. They crowded 
around the emperor and urged him immedi- 
ately to take the most decisive measures to 
save himself from the impending danger, and 
they succeeded so well in working upon his 
fears that he stood before them in stupid 



AJD. 48.] Fate of Messalina. 93 

Measures adopted by Claudius and the conspirators. 

amazement, wholly incapable of deciding 
what to say or do. The conspirators urged 
upon the emperor the necessity of first secur- 
ing the guard. This body was commanded 
by an officer named Geta, on whom Narcissus 
said no reliance could be placed, and he begged 
that Claudius would immediately authorize 
him, Narcissus, to take the command. The 
object of the confederates in thus wishing to 
get command of the guard was, perhaps, to 
make sure of the prompt and immediate exe- 
cution of any sentence which they might suc- 
ceed in inducing the emperor to pronounce 
upon Silius or Messalina, before he should 
have the opportunity of changing his mind. 
The emperor turned from one adviser to an- 
other, listening to their various suggestions 
and plans, but he seemed bewildered and un- 
decided, as if he knew not what to do. It 
was, however, at length, determined to pro- 
ceed immediately to Rome. The whole party 
accordingly mounted into their carriages, 
Narcissus taking his seat by the side of the 
emperor in the imperial chariot, in order that 
he might keep up the excitement and agita- 
tion in his master's mind by his conversation 
on the way. 



94: JSTero. [A.D.48. 

Messalina receives warning. Scene in the garden. 

In the mean time there were among those 
who witnessed these proceedings at Ostia, 
some who were disposed to take sides with 
Messalina and Silius, in the approaching 
struggle ; and they immediately dispatched a 
special messenger to Rome to warn the em- 
press of the impending danger. This messen- 
ger rode up along the banks of the Tiber with 
all speed, and in advance of the emperor's 
party. On his arrival in the city he immedi- 
ately repaired to the palace gardens and com- 
municated his errand to Messalina and her 
company in the midst of their festivities. 
Claudius had been informed, he said, against 
her and Silius, and was almost beside him- 
self with resentment and anger. He was al- 
ready on his way to Rome, the messenger 
added, coming to wreak vengeance upon 
them, and he warned them to escape for their 
lives. This communication was made, of 
course, in the first instance, somewhat pri- 
vately to the parties principally concerned. 
It, however, put a sudden stop to all the hilar- 
ity and joy, and the tidings were rapidly cir- 
culated around the gardens. One man. 
climbed into a tree and looked oif in the di- 
rection of Ostia. The others asked him what 



A.D. 48.] Fate of Messalina. 95 

Silius withdraws. Messalina's anxiety, 

he saw. " I see a great storm arising from the 
sea at Ostia," said he, " and coming hither, and 
it is time for us to save ourselves." In a word 
the bacchanalian games and sports were all 
soon broken rip in confusion, and the com- 
pany made their escape from the scene, each 
by a different way. 

Silius immediately resumed his ordinary 
dress, and went forth into the city, where, 
under an assumed appearance of indifference 
and unconcern, he walked about in the forum, 
as if nothing unusual had occurred. Messa- 
lina herself fled to the house of a friend, 
named Lucullus, and, passing immediately 
through the house, sought a hiding-place in 
the gardens. Here her mind began to be 
overwhelmed with anguish, remorse, and ter- 
ror. Her sins, now that a terrible retribution 
for them seemed to be impending, rose before 
her in all their enormity, and she knew not 
w 7 hat to do. She soon reflected that there 
could be no permanent safety for her where 
she was, for the advanced guards of Claudius, 
which were even then entering the city and 
commencing their arrests, would be sure soon 
to discover the place of her retreat, and bring 
her before her exasperated husband. She 



96 Eeeo. [A.D.48. 

Messalina's course of action. Her two children. 

concluded that, rather than wait for this, it 
would be better for her to go before him her- 
self voluntarily ; and, by throwing herself 
upon his mercy, endeavor to soften and ap- 
pease him. She accordingly, in her distrac- 
tion, determined to pursue this course. She 
came forth from her hiding-place in Lucullus's 
gardens, and went to seek her children, in- 
tending to take them with her, that the sight 
of them might help to move the heart of their 
father. Her children were two in number. 
Octavia, who has already been mentioned, 
was the eldest, being now about ten or twelve 
years of age. The other was a boy several 
years younger ; his name was Britannicus. 

In the mean time, the city was thrown quite 
into a state of commotion, by the approach 
of Claudius, and by the tidings which had 
spread rapidly through the streets, of what 
had occurred. The soldiers whom Claudius 
had sent forward, were making arrests in the 
streets, and searching the houses. In the 
midst of this excitement, Messalina, with her 
children, attended by one of the vestal vir- 
gins, named Vibidia, whom she had prevailed 
upon to accompany her and plead her cause, 
came forth from her palace on foot, and pro- 



A.D. 48.] Fate o-f Messalina. 97 

She proceeds to meet the emperor. Her entreaties. 

ceeded through the streets, her hair dishev- 
eled, her dress in disorder, and her whole 
appearance marked by every characteristic of 
humiliation, abasement, and woe. When she 
reached the gate of the city, she mounted 
into a common cart which she found there, 
and in that manner proceeded to meet her 
angry husband, leaving her children with Vi- 
bidia, the vestal, to follow behind. 

She had not proceeded very far, before she 
met the emperor's train approaching. As 
soon as she came near enough to the carriage 
of Claudius to be heard, she began to utter 
loud entreaties and lamentations, begging her 
husband to hear before he condemned her. 
"Hear your unhappy wife," said she, "hear 
the mother of Britannicus and Octavia." 
Narcissus and the others who were near, in- 
terposed to prevent her from being heard. 
They talked continually to the emperor, and 
produced a written memorial and other papers 
for him to read, which contained, they said, 
a full account of the whole transaction. Clau- 
dius, taking very little notice of his wife, 
pursued his way toward the city. She fol- 
lowed in his train. "When they drew near to 
the gates, they met Yibidia and the children. 

G 



98 Nero. [A.D.48. 

Claudius will not hear her. Vibidia repulsed. 

Vibidia attempted to speak, but Claudius 
would not listen. She complained, in a 
mournful tone, that for him to condemn his 
wife unheard, would be unjust and cruel; but 
Claudius was unmoved. He told Vibidia 
that Messalina would in due time have a 
suitable opportunity to make her defense, 
and that, in the mean time, the proper duty 
of a vestal virgin was to confine herself to 
the functions of her sacred office. Thus he 
sent both her and the children away. 

As soon as the party arrived in the city 
^Narcissus conducted the emperor to the house 
of Silius, and entering it he showed to the 
emperor there a great number of proofs of the 
guilty favoritism which the owner of it had 
enjoyed with Messalina. The house was 
filled with valuable presents, the tokens of 
Messalaina's love, consisting, many of them, 
of costly household treasures which had de- 
scended to Claudius in the imperial line, and 
which were of such a character that the alien- 
ation of them by Messalina, in such a way, 
was calculated to fill the heart of Claudius 
with indignation and anger. The emperor 
then proceeded to the camp. Silius and sev- 
eral of his leading friends were arrested and 



A.D. 48.] Fate of Messalina. 99 

Executions. Claudius at supper. 

brought together before a sort of military tri- 
bunal summoned on the spot to try them. 
The trial was of course very brief and very 
summary. They were all condemned to death 
and were led out to instant execution. 

This being done the emperor returned with 
his friends to the city and repaired to his pal- 
ace. His mind seemed greatly relieved. He 
felt that the crisis of danger was past. He 
ordered supper to be prepared, and when it 
was ready he seated himself at table. He 
congratulated himself and his friends on the 
escape from the perils that had surrounded 
them, which they had so happily accom- 
plished. Narcissus and the others began to 
tremble lest after all Messalina should be 
spared ; and they knew full well that if she 
should be allowed to live, she would soon, by 
her artful management, regain her ascend- 
ency over the emperor's mind, and that in 
that case she would give herself no rest until 
she had destroyed all those who had taken 
any part in effecting the destruction of Silius. 
They began to be greatly alarmed therefore 
for their own safety. In the mean time mes- 
sages came in from Messalina, who, when the 
emperor entered the city, had returned to her 



100 Nebo. [A.D. 48. 

Messalina's letter. Claudius relents. Alarm of Narcissus. 

former place of refuge in the gardens of Lu- 
cullus. At length a letter, or memorial, 
came. On reading what was written it was 
found that Messalina was assuming a bolder 
tone. Her letter was a remonstrance rather 
than a petition, as if she were designing to try 
the effect of bravery and assurance, and to 
see if she could not openly reassume the as- 
cendency and control which she had long ex- 
ercised over the mind of her husband. Clau- 
dius seemed inclined to hesitate and waver. 
His anger appeared to be subsiding with his 
fears, and the wine which he drank freely at 
the table seemed to conspire with the other 
influences of the occasion to restore his wonted 
good-humor. He ordered that in reply to 
Messalina's letter a messenger should go and 
inform her that she should be admitted the 
next day to see him and to make her defense. 
Narcissus and his confederates were greatly 
alarmed, and determined immediately that 
this must not be. Narcissus had been placed, 
it would seem, according to the wish of the 
conspirators at the outset, in command of the 
guard ; and he accordingly had power to pre- 
vent the emperor's determination from being 
carried into effect, provided that he should 



A.D. 48.] Fate of Messalina. 101 

Naroissus orders Messalina to be slain. 

dare to take the responsibility of acting. It 
was a moment of great anxiety and suspense. 
He soon, however, came strongly to the con- 
clusion that though it would be very danger- 
ous for him to act, yet that not to act would be 
certain destruction ; since if Messalina were 
allowed to live it would be absolutely certain 
that they all must die. Accordingly, sum- 
moning all his resolution he hurried out of 
the banqueting room, and gave orders to the 
officers on duty there, in the emperor's name, 
to proceed to the gardens of Lucullus and ex- 
ecute sentence of death on Messalina without 
any delay. 

Messalina was with her mother Lepida, in 
the gardens, awaiting her answer from the 
emperor, when the band of soldiers came. 
Messalina and her mother had never been 
agreed, and now for a long time had had no 
intercourse with each other. The daughter's 
danger had, however, reawakened the instinct 
of maternal love in the mother's heart, and 
Lepida had come to see her child in this the 
hour of her extremity. She came, however, 
not to console or comfort her child, or to aid 
her in her efforts to save her life, but to pro- 
vide her with the means of putting an end to 



102 Neko. [A.D.48. 

Interview between Messalina and her mother in the garden. 

her own existence as the only way now left 
to her, of escape from the greater disgrace of 
public execution. 

She accordingly offered a poniard to Mes- 
salina in the gardens, and urged her to take 
it. " Death by your own hand," said she, " is 
now your only refuge. You must die ; it is 
impossible that this tragedy can have any 
other termination ; and to wait quietly here 
for the stroke of the executioner is base and 
ignoble. You must die / — and all that now 
remains to you is the power to close the scene 
with dignity and with becoming spirit." 

Messalina manifested the greatest agitation 
and distress, but she could not summon reso- 
lution to receive the poniard. In the midst 
of this scene the band of soldiers appeared, 
entering the garden. The mother pressed 
the poniard upon her daughter, saying, " Now 
is the time." Messalina took the weapon, 
and pointed it toward her breast, but had not 
firmness enough to strike it home. The offi- 
cer approached her at the head of his men, 
with his sword drawn in his hand. Messa- 
lina, still irresolute, made a feeble and inef- 
fectual effort to give herself a wound, but 
failed of inflicting it ; and then the officer, 



A.D. 48.] Fate of Messalina. 103 

Indifference of Claudius in respect to Messalina's fate. 

who had by this time advanced to the spot 
where she was standing, put an end to her 
dreadful mental struggles by cutting her 
down and killing her at a single blow. 

When tidings were brought back to Nar- 
cissus that his commands had been obeyed, 
he went again to the presence of Claudius, 
and reported to him simply that Messalina 
was no more. He made no explanations, and 
the emperor asked for none ; but went on with 
his supper as if nothing had occurred, and 
never afterward expressed any curiosity or in- 
terest in respect to Messalina's fate. 

As soon as the excitement produced by 
these transactions had in some degree sub- 
sided, various plans and intrigues were com- 
menced for providing the emperor with an- 
other wife. There were many competitors for 
the station, all of whom were eager to occupy 
it ; for, though Claudius was old, imbecile, 
and ugly, still he was the emperor ; and all 
those ladies of his court who thought that they 
had any prospect of success, aspired to the 
possession of his hand, as the summit of earth- 
ly ambition. Among the rest, Agrippina 
appeared. She was Claudius's niece. This 
relationship was in one respect a bar to her 



104 Neeo. [A.D.41. 

Claudius marries Agrippina. Adoption of her son. 

success, since the laws prohibited marriage 
within that degree of consanguinity. In an- 
other respect, however, the relationship was 
greatly in Agrippina's favor, for under the 
plea of it she had constant access to the em- 
peror, and was extremely assiduous in her at- 
tentions to him. She succeeded, at length, in 
inspiring him with some sentiment of love, and 
he determined to make her his wife, The 
Senate were easily induced to alter the laws 
in order to enable him to do this, and Claudius 
and Agrippina were married. 

Claudius not only thus made the mother of 
our hero his wife, but he adopted her son as 
his son and heir — changing, at the same time, 
the name of the boy. In place of his former 
plebeian appellation of Ahenobarbus, he gave 
him now the imposing title of JSTero Claudius 
Caesar Drusus Germanicus. He has since gen- 
erally been known in history, however, by the 
simple prenomen, Nero. 



A.D. 39.] Childhood of Nero. 105 

Early history of Nero. Character of his father. 



Chapter Y. 
The Childhood of Nero. 

DURING the time that Agrippina had 
been passing through the strange and 
eventful vicissitudes of her history, described 
in the preceding chapters, young Nero him- 
self, as we shall henceforth call him, had 
been growing up an active and intelligent, 
but an indulged and ungoverned boy. His 
own father died when he was about three 
years old. This, however, was an advantage 
probably, rather than a loss to the boy, as 
Brazenbeard was an extremely coarse, cruel, 
and unprincipled man. He once killed one 
of his slaves for not drinking as much as he 
ordered him. Riding one day in his chariot 
through a village, he drove wantonly and 
purposely over a boy, and killed him on the 
spot. He defrauded all who dealt with him, 
and was repeatedly prosecuted for the worst 
of crimes. He treated his wife with great 
brutality. As has already been said, he re- 
ceived the announcement of the birth of his 



106 Nero. [A.D. 39. 

— » _ 

Bmtal character of Brazenbeard. Nero neglected. 

son with derision, saying that nothing but 
what was detestable could come from him and 
Agrippina ; and when they asked him what 
name they should give the child, he recom- 
mended to them to name him Claudius. This 
was said in contempt, for Claudius was at that 
time despised by every one, as a deformed 
and stupid idiot, though he was subsequently 
made emperor in the manner that has been 
already explained. The manifestation of such 
a spirit, at such a time, on the part of her 
husband, pained Agrippina exceedingly, — 
but the more it pained her, the more Brazen- 
beard was gratified and amused. The death 
of such a father could, of course, be no ca- 
lamity. 

When Agrippina, Nero's mother, was ban- 
ished from Rome by the order of Caligula, 
Nero himself did not accompany her, but re- 
mained behind under the care of his aunt 
Lepida, with whom he lived for a time in 
comparative neglect and obscurity. Though 
he belonged to one of the most aristocratic 
families of Rome, his mother being a descen- 
dant and heir of the Caesars, he spent some 
years in a situation of poverty and disgrace. 
His education was neglected, as he received 



A.D. 41.] Childhood of Nero. 107 

Nero reappears at court. Britannicus. 

no instruction at this time except from a 
dancing-master and a barber, who were his 
only tutors. Of course, the formation of his 
moral character was wholly neglected, — nor, 
in fact, considering the character of those by 
whom he was surrounded, would it have been 
possible that any favorable influence should 
have been exerted upon him, if the attempt 
had been made. 

At length when Caligula died and Agrip- 
pina was recalled from her banishment by 
Claudius, and reinstated in her former position 
at Rome, Nero emerged from his obscurity, 
and thenceforth lived with his mother in lux- 
ury and splendor in the capital. Nero was a 
handsome boy, and he soon became an object 
of great popular favor and regard. He often 
appeared in public at entertainments and 
celebrations, and when he did so he was 
always specially noticed and caressed. His 
companion, and in some respects his rival and 
competitor, at such times, was Britannicus, 
the son of Claudius and Messalina. Britan- 
nicus was two or three years younger than 
Nero, and being the son of the emperor was 
of course a very prominent and conspicuous 
object of attention whenever he appeared. 



108 Neeo. [A.D.45. 



The secular or centennial games. 



But the rank of Nero was scarcely less high, 
since his mother was descended directly from 
the imperial family, while in age and personal 
appearance and bearing he was superior to 
his cousin. 

One instance is specially noticed by the his- 
torians of those days, in which young Nero 
was honored with an extraordinary degree of 
public attention and regard. It was on the oc- 
casion of celebrating what might be called the 
centennial games. These games were gene- 
rally supposed to be celebrated at each recur- 
rence of a certain astronomical period, of 
about one hundred years' duration, called an 
age ; but in reality it was at irregular though 
very distant intervals that they were observed. 
Claudius instituted a celebration of them early 
in his reign. There had been a celebration 
of them in the reign of Augustus, not many 
years before, — but Claudius, wishing to sig- 
nalize his own reign by some great entertain- 
ment and display, pretended that Augustus 
had made a miscalculation, and had observed 
the festival at the wrong time ; and he ordain- 
ed, accordingly, that the celebration should 
take place again. 

The games and shows connected with this 



A.D. 45.] Childhood of Nero. 109 

Mode of celebrating them. Nero and Britannicus. 

festival extended through three successive 
days. They consisted of sacrifices and other 
religious rites, dramatic spectacles, athletic 
games, and military and gladiatorial shows. 
In the course of these diversions there was 
celebrated on one of the days what was called 
the Trojan game, in which young boys of lead- 
ing and distinguished families appeared on 
horseback in a circus or ring, where they per- 
formed certain evolutions and feats of horse- 
manship, and mock conflicts, in the midst of 
the tens of thousands of spectators who throng- 
ed the seats around. Of course Britannicus 
and Nero were the most prominent and con- 
spicuous of the boys on this occasion. Nero, 
however, in the estimation of the populace, 
bore off the palm. He was received with the 
loudest acclamations by the whole assembly, 
while Britannicus attracted far less attention. 
This triumph filled Agrippina's heart with 
pride and pleasure, while it occasioned to 
Messalina the greatest vexation and chagrin. 
It made Agrippina more than ever before the 
object of Messalina's hatred and hostility, and 
the empress would very probably before long 
have found some means of destroying her 
rival had she not soon after this become in- 



110 Eebo. [A.D.45. 

Nero applauded. The story of the serpents. 

volved herself in the difficulties arising out of 
her connection with Silius, which resulted so 
soon in her own destruction. 

The people, however, were filled with ad- 
miration of Nero, and they applauded his per- 
formance with the utmost enthusiasm. He 
was for a time a subject of conversation in 
every circle throughout the city, and many 
tales were told of his history and his doings- 
Among other things which were related of 
him, the story was circulated that Messalina 
became so excited against him in her jealousy 
and envy, that she sent two assassins to mur- 
der him in his sleep ; and that the assassins, 
coming to him in a garden where he was 
lying asleep upon a pillow, were just putting 
their cruel orders into execution when they 
were driven away by a serpent that appeared 
miraculously at the moment to defend the 
child — darting out at the assassins from be- 
neath the pillow. Others said that it was in 
his infancy that this occurrence took place, 
and that there were two serpents instead of 
one, and that they guarded the life of their 
charge lying with him in his cradle. One of 
the historians of the time states that neither 
of these stories was really true, but that they 



A.D. 49.] Childhood of Neeo. Ill 

Advancement of Nero after the death of Messalina. 

both originated in the fact that Nero was ac- 
customed to wear, when a boy, a bracelet 
made of a serpent's skin, small and of beauti- 
ful colors, — and fastened, as they said, around 
the wearer's wrist with a clasp of gold. 

However the fact may be in respect to Mes- 
salina's allowing her jealousy of Agrippina 
to carry her so far as to make direct attempts 
upon his life, there is no doubt that she lived 
in continual fear of the influence both of Nero 
and of his mother, on the mind of the em- 
peror ; and Agrippina was consequently com- 
pelled to submit to. many indignities which 
the position and the power of Messalina ena- 
bled her to impose upon her enemies and ri- 
vals. At length, however, the fall of Messa- 
lina, and the entire revolution in the situation 
and prospects of Agrippina which was conse- 
quent upon it, changed altogether the position 
of Nero. It might have been expected, it is 
true, even after the marriage of Claudius with 
Agrippina, that Britannicus would have still 
maintained altogether the highest place in 
the emperor's regard, since Britannicus was 
his own son, while Nero was only the son of 
his wife. But Agrippina was artful enough 
to manage her indolent and stupid husband 



112 Nero. [A.D. 51. 

Agrippina's treatment of Britanmcus. 

just as she pleased; and she soon found 
means to displace Britannicus, and to raise 
Nero in his stead, to the highest place, in 
precedence and honor. She persuaded Clau- 
dius to adopt Nero as his own son, as was 
stated in the last chapter. She obtained a 
decree of the Senate, approving and confirm- 
ing this act. She then removed Britannicus 
from the court and shut him up in seclusion, 
in a nursery, under pretense of tender regard 
for his health and safety. In a word, she 
treated Britannicus in all respects like a. little 
child, and kept him wholly in the back- 
ground ; while she brought her own son, 
though he was but little older than the other, 
very prominently forward, as a young man. 

In those ancient days as now, there was 
an appropriate dress for youth, which was 
changed for that of a man when the subject 
arrived at maturity. The garment which was 
most distinctively characteristic of adult age 
among the Romans was called the toga ; and 
it was assumed by the Roman youth, not as 
the dress of a man is by young persons now, 
in a private and informal manner, according 
as the convenience or fancy of the individual 
may dictate, — but publicly and with much 



A.D. 51.] Childhood of Nero. 113 

Nero assumes the toga. Britannicus secluded. 

ceremony, and always at the time when the 
party arrived at the period of legal majority ; 
so that assuming the toga marked always a 
very important era of life. This distinction 
Agrippina caused to be conferred upon Nero 
by a special edict when he was only fourteen 
years of age, which was at a very much ear- 
lier period than usual. On the occasion of 
thus advancing him to the dress and to the 
legal capabilities of manhood, Agrippina 
brought him out in a special manner before 
the people of Rome at a great public celebra- 
tion, and the more effectually to call public 
attention to him as a young prince of the 
highest distinction in the imperial family, she 
induced Claudius to bestow a largess upon 
the people, and a donative upon the army, 
that is a public distribution of money, to the 
citizens and to the soldiers, in Nero's name. 

All this time Britannicus was kept shut up 
in the private apartments of the palace with 
nurses and children. The tutors and attend- 
ants whom Messalina his mother provided for 
him were one by one removed, and their 
places supplied by others whom Agrippina 
selected for the purpose, and whom she could 
rely upon to second her views. When in- 

H 



114 Nero. [A.D. 51. 

Agrippina's treatment of the two boys. 

quired of in respect to Britannicus by those 
who had known him before, during his moth- 
er's lifetime, she replied that he was a weak 
and feeble child, subject to fits, and thus ne- 
cessarily kept secluded from society. 

Sometimes, indeed, on great public occa- 
sions, both Nero and Britannicus appeared 
together, but even in these cases the arrange- 
ments were so made as to impress the public 
mind more forcibly than ever with an idea 
of the vast superiority of Nero, in respect to 
rank and position. On one such occasion, 
while Britannicus was carried about clothed 
in the dress of a child, and with attendants 
characteristic of the nursery, Nero rode on 
horseback, richly appareled in the triumphal 
robes of a general returning from a foreign 
campaign. 

Agrippina was one day made very angry 
with Britannicus, for what might seem a very 
trifling cause. It seems that Britannicus, 
though young, was a very intelligent boy, 
and that he understood perfectly the policy 
which his step-mother was pursuing toward 
him, and was very unwilling to submit to be 
thus supplanted. One day, when he and 
Nero were both abroad, attending some pub- 



AJD. 51.] Childhood of Nero. 115 

Britannicus offends Nero. Agrippina's anger. 

lie spectacle or celebration, they met, aiid 
Nero accosted his cousin, calling him Britan- 
nicus. Britannicus, in returning the saluta- 
tion, addressed Nero familiarly by the name Do- 
mitius ; — Domitius Ahenobarbus having been 
his name beforo he was adopted by Claudius. 
Agrippina was very indignant when she heard 
of this. She considered the using of this 
name by Britannicus, as denoting, on his 
part, a refusal to acknowledge his cousin as 
the adopted son of his father. She imme- 
diately went to Claudius with earnest and 
angry complainings. " Tour own edict," said 
she, " sanctioned and confirmed by the Sen- 
ate, is disavowed and annulled, and my son 
is subjected to public insult by the imperti- 
nence of this child." Agrippina farther rep- 
resented to Claudius, that Britannicus never 
would have thought of addressing her son in 
such a manner, of his own accord. His doing 
it must have arisen from the influence of 
some of the persons around him who were 
hostile to her ; and she made use of the occa- 
sion to induce Claudius to give her authority 
to remove all that remained of the child's 
instructors and governors, who could be sus- 
pected of a friendly interest in his cause, and 



116 Nero. [A.JD. 51. 

The Fucine lake. Plan for draining it. The canal. 

to subject him to new and more rigorous 
restrictions than ever. 

One of the most imposing of all the spec- 
tacles and celebrations which Claudius insti- 
tuted during his reign, was the one which 
signalized the opening of the canal by which 
the A Fucine lake was drained. The Fucine 
lake was a large but shallow body of water, 
at the foot of the Appenines, near the sources 
of the Tiber.* It was subject to periodic in- 
undations, by which the surrounding lands 
were submerged. An engineer had offered 
to drain the lake, in consideration of receiv- 
ing for his pay the lands which would be laid 
dry by the operation. But Claudius, who 
seemed to have quite a taste for such under- 
takings, preferred to accomplish the work 
himself. The canal by which the water 
should be conveyed away, was to be formed 
in part by a deep cut, and partly by a tunnel 
through a mountain ; and inasmuch as in 
those days the power now chiefly relied upon 
for making such excavations, namely, the ex- 
plosive force of gunpowder, was not known, 
any extensive working in solid rock was an 
operation of immense labor. "When the canal 
* See Map. Frontispiece. 



A.D. 52.] Childhood of Neeo. 117 

Grand celebration at the opening of the canal. 

was finished, Claudius determined to institute 
a grand celebration to signalize the opening 
of it for drawing off the water ; and as he 
could not safely rely on the hydraulic interest 
of the spectacle for drawing such a concourse 
to the spot as he wished to see there, he con- 
cluded to add to the entertainment a show 
more suited to the taste and habits of the 
times. He made arrangements accordingly 
for having a naval battle fought upon the lake, 
for the amusement of the spectators, just be- 
fore the opening of the canal, which was to 
draw off the water. Thus the battle was to be 
the closing scene, in which the history and 
existence of the lake were to be terminated 
forever. 

Ships were accordingly built, and an im- 
mense number of men wore designated and 
set apart for fighting the battle. These men 
consisted of convicts and prisoners of war — 
men whom it was, in those days, considered 
perfectly just and right to employ in killing 
one another for the amusement of the empe- 
ror and his guests. A sort of bulwark was 
built all around the shore, and the emperor's 
guards were stationed upon it, to prevent the 
escape of the combatants, and to turn them 



118 Nero. [A.D. 62. 

Naval conflict to take place on the lake. 

back to their duty if any of them should at- 
tempt, when pressed hard in the battle, to 
escape to the land. The fleet of galleys was 
divided into two antagonistic portions, and 
the men in each were armed completely, as 
in a case of actual war. At the appointed 
time, hundreds of thousands of people assem- 
bled from all the surrounding country to see 
the sight. They lined the shores on every 
side, and crowned all the neighboring heights. 
The contest, of course, might be waged with 
all the fury and fatal effect of a real battle 
without endangering the spectators at all, as 
there were in those days no flying bullets, or 
other swift-winged missiles, like those which 
in modern times take so wide a range beyond 
the limits of the battle. The deadly effect of 
all that was done in an ancient combat was 
confined of course to those immediately en- 
gaged. Then there was, besides, nothing to 
intercept the vision. No smoke was raised to 
obscure the view, but the atmosphere above 
and around the combatants remained as pure 
and transparent at the end of the combat as 
at the beginning. 

A real battle was accordingly regarded by 
the Romans as the most sublime and imposing 



A.D. 52.] Childhood of Nero. 119 

End of the naval battle. The water will not flow. 

of spectacles, and hundreds of thousands of 
spectators flocked to witness the one which 
Claudius arranged for them on the Fucine 
lake. He himself presided, dressed in a coat 
of mail ; and Agrippina sat by his side, cloth- 
ed in a magnificent robe, which the historian 
states was woven from threads of gold, with- 
out the admixture of any other material. 
The signal was given, and the battle was 
commenced. There was some difficulty ex 
perienced, as usual in such cases, in getting 
the men to engage, but they became sufficient- 
ly ferocious at last to satisfy all the spectators, 
and thousands were slain. At length the em- 
peror gave orders that the battle should cease, 
and the survivors were informed that their 
lives were spared. 

It was fortunate, on the whole, for Claudius, 
that he did not rely wholly on the simple 
drawing off of the water from the lake for the 
amusement of the immense assemblage that 
he had convened, for it was found, when, 
after the close of the battle, the canal was 
opened, that the water would not run. The 
engineers had made some mistake in their 
measurements or their calculations, and had 
left the bed of the canal in some part of its 



120 Neeo. [A.D. 52. 

Deepening the canal. New celebrations. 

course too high, so that the water, when the 
sluices were opened, instead of flowing off into 
the river to which the canal was intended to 
conduct it, remained quietly in the lake as 
before. 

The assembly dispersed, and the work on 
the canal was resumed with a view of making 
it deeper. In the course of a year the exca- 
vation was completed, and all was made 
ready for a new trial. Claudius summoned a 
new assembly to witness the operation, and at 
this time, instead of a naval conflict, he made 
provision for a great combat of gladiators, to 
be fought on immense floating platforms 
which were built upon the lake near the out- 
let which the engineers had made. In the 
end, however, the second attempt to make the 
water flow, proved more unfortunate than the 
first. The channel had been made very deep 
and wide, so that the water was inclined to 
move, when once put in motion, with the ut- 
most impetuosity and force ; and it so hap- 
pened, that in some way or other, the means 
which the engineer had relied upon for con- 
trolling it were insufficient, and when the 
gates were opened every thing suddenly gave 
way. The water rushed out in an overwhelm- 



AJD. 52.] Childhood of Nero. 121 

Influences under which Nero's character was formed. 

ing torrent, as in an inundation — and under- 
mined and carried away the platforms and 
stagings which had been erected for the seats 
of the spectators. A scene of indescribable 
tumult and confusion ensued. The emperor 
and empress, with the guests and spectators, 
fled precipitously together, and all narrowly 
escaped being carried down into the canal. 

It is by no means difficult to imagine what 
sort of a character a boy must necessarily 
form, brought up under such influences and 
surrounded by such scenes as those which 
thus prevailed at the court of Claudius. It 
proved in the end that Nero experienced the 
full effect of them. He became proud, vain, 
self-willed, cruel, and accustomed to yield 
himself without restraint to all those wicked 
propensities and passions which, under such 
circumstances, always gain dominion over the 
human soul. 

Besides Britannicus, it will be recollected 
that Messalina had left another child, — a 
daughter named Octavia, who was two or 
three years younger than her brother, and of 
course about five years younger than Nero. 
Agrippina did not pursue the same course of 



122 Neeo. [A.D. 52. 

Agrippina's plan in respect to Octavia. 

opposition and hostility toward her which she 
had adopted in regard to Britannicus. She 
determined, at the outset, upon a very differ- 
ent plan. Britannicus was necessarily a rival 
and competitor for Nero ; and every step in 
advance which he should make, could not 
operate otherwise than as an impediment and 
obstacle to Nero's success. But Octavia, as 
Agrippina thought, might be employed to 
further and aid her designs, by being betroth- 
ed, and in due time married, to her son. 

The advantages of such a scheme were very 
obvious, — so obvious in fact that the design 
was formed by Agrippina at the very begin- 
ning, — even before her own marriage with 
the emperor was fully effected. There was 
one serious obstacle in the way, and that was 
that Octavia was already betrothed to a very 
distinguished young nobleman named Lucius 
Bilanus. Agrippina, after having, by various 
Bkillful manceuvers, succeeded in enlisting the 
public officers who would act as judges in his 
case, caused Silanus to be accused of infa- 
mous crimes. The historians say that the 
evidence which w^as adduced against him was 
of the most trivial character. Still he was 
condemned. He seems to have understood 



AJ). 53.] Childhood of Nero. 123 

Tragical end of Silanus. Marriage of Nero. 

the nature and the cause of the hostility which 
had suddenly developed itself against him, 
and to have felt at once all the hopelessness 
of his condition. He killed himself in his 
despair on the very night of the marriage of 
Claudius with Agrippina. 

The empress found afterward no serious 
difficulty in accomplishing her design. She 
obtained the emperor's consent to a betrothal 
of Nero to Octavia ; but as they were yet too 
young to be married, the ceremony was post- 
poned for a short time. At length in about 
five years after the marriage of Agrippina 
herself, Nero and Octavia were married. 
Nero was at that time about sixteen years of 
age. His bride of course was only eleven. 



12i Nero. [A.D.64. 

Claudius is sick. Agrippina's joy. Her schemes. 



Chapter VI. 

ISTeko an Empeeoe, 

ABOUT one year after Nero's marriage to 
Octavia the emperor Claudius was sud- 
denly taken sick. On learning this, Agrip- 
pina was very much excited and very much 
pleased. If the sickness should result in the 
emperor's death, her son she thought would 
immediately succeed him. Every thing had 
been long since fully arranged for such a re- 
sult, and all was now ready, she imagined, 
for the change. 

It is true that JSTero was still very young, 
i>ut then he was uncommonly mature both in 
mind and in person, for one of his years ; and 
the people had been accustomed for some 
time to look upon him as a man. Among 
other means which Agrippina had resorted to 
for giving an appearance of manliness and 
maturity to the character of her son, she had 
brought him forward in the Eoman Forum as 
a public advocate, and he had made orations 
there in several instances, with great success. 



A.D. 54.] Nero an Emperor. 125 

Estimation in which Nero was held. 

He had been well instructed in those studies 
which were connected with the art of oratory, 
and as his person and manners were agreea- 
ble, and his countenance intelligent and pre- 
possessing, and especially as the confidence 
which he felt in his powers gave him an air 
of great self-possession and composure, the 
impression which he made was very favora- 
ble. The people were in fact predisposed to 
be pleased with and to applaud the efforts of 
a young orator so illustrious in rank and sta- 
tion — and the ability which he displayed, al- 
though he was so young, was such as to jus- 
tify, unquestionably, in some degree, the hon- 
ors that they paid him. 

Agrippina, therefore, supposing that her 
son was now far enough advanced in public 
consideration to make it in some degree cer- 
tain that he would be the emperor's successor, 
was ready at any time for her husband to die. 
His sickness therefore filled her mind with 
excitement and hope. There was another 
motive too, besides her ambitious desires for 
the advancement of her son, that made her 
desirous that Claudius should, /not live. She 
had been now for several months somewhat 
solicitous and anxious about her own safety. 



126 Nebo. [A.D. 54. 

Agrippina considers herself in danger. 

Her influence over Claudius, which was at 
first so absolute and supreme, had afterward 
greatly declined, and within a few months she 
had begun to fear that she might be losing it 
entirely. In fact she had some reason for be- 
lieving that Claudius regarded her with con- 
cealed hostility and hate, and was secretly 
revolving plans for deposing both her and her 
son from the high ascendency to which they 
had raised themselves, and for bringing back 
his own son to his proper prominence, in 
Nero's place. Agrippina, too, in the midst 
of her ambitious projects and plans, led a life 
of secret vice and crime, and feeling guilty 
and self-condemned, every trivial indication 
of danger excited her fears. Some one in- 
formed her that Claudius one day when 
speaking of a woman who had been convicted 
of crime, said that it had always been his 
misfortune to have profligate wives, but that 
he always brought them in the end to the 
punishment that they deserved. Agrippina 
was greatly terrified at this report. She con- 
sidered it a" warning that Claudius was medi- 
tating some fatal proceedings in respect to 
her. 

Agrippina observed, too, as she thought, 



A.D. 54.] Neeo an Empekoe. 127 

Reasons for her fears. Claudius and Britannicus. 

various indications that Claudius was begin- 
ning to repent of having adopted Nero and 
thus displaced his own son from the line of 
inheritance ; and that he was secretly intend- 
ing to restore Britannicus to his true position. 
He treated the boy with greater and greater 
attention every day, and at one time, after 
having been conversing with him and express- 
ing an unusual interest in his health and 
welfare, he ended by saying, " Go on improv- 
ing, my son, and grow up as fast as you can 
to be a man. I shall be able to give a good 
account of all that I have done in regard to 
you in due time. Trust to me, and you will 
find that all will come out right in the end." 
At another time he told Britannicus that 
pretty soon he should give him the toga, and 
bring him forward before the people as a 
man, — "and then at last," said he, u the 
Romans will have a prince that is genuine" 

Agrippina was not present, it is true, when 
these things were said and done, but every 
thing was minutely reported to her, and she 
was filled with anxiety and alarm. She be- 
gan to be afraid that unless something should 
speedily occur to enable her to realize her 
hopes and expectations, they would end in 



128 Nero. [A.D. 54 

She forms plans for hastening her husband's death. 

nothing but bitter and cruel disappointment 
after all. 

Such being the sfcate of things, Agrippina 
was greatly pleased at the news, when she 
heard that her husband was sick. She most 
earnestly hoped that he would die, and im- 
mediately began to consider what she could 
do to insure or to hasten such a result. She 
thought of poison, and began to debate the 
question in her mind whether she should dare 
to administer it. J Then if she were to decide 
to give her husband poison, it was a very 
serious question what kind of poison she 
should employ. If she were to administer one 
that was sudden and violent in its operation, 
the effect which it would produce might 
attract attention, and her crime be discovered. 
On the other hand, if she were to choose one 
that was more moderate and gradual in its 
power, so as to produce a slow and lingering 
death, time would be allowed for Claudius to 
carry into effect any secret designs that he 
might be forming for disavowing Nero as his 
son, and fixing the succession upon Britan- 
nicus ; and Agrippina well knew that if Clau- 
dius were to die, leaving things in such a state 
that Britannicus should succeed him, the 



A.D. 54.] Nero an Emperor. 129 

Locusta. Agrippina determines to consult her. 

downfall and ruin both of herself and her son 
would immediately and inevitably follow. 

There was at that time in Rome a celebra- 
ted mistress of the art of poisoning, named 
Locusta. She was in prison, having been con- 
demned to death for her crimes. Though 
condemned she had been kept back from 
execution by the influence of Agrippina, on 
account of the skill which she possessed in her 
art, and which Agrippina thought it possible 
that she might have occasion at some time to 
make use of. This Locusta she now deter- 
mined to consult. She accordingly went to 
her, and asked her if she did not know of any 
poison which would immediately take effect 
upon the brain and mind, so as to incapacitate 
the patient at once from all mental action, 
while yet it should be gradual and slow in its 
operations on the vital functions of the body. 
Locusta answered in the affirmative. Such 
characters were always prepared to furnish 
any species of medicaments that their custom- 
ers might call for. She compounded a potion 
which she said possessed the properties which 
Agrippina required, and Agrippina, receiving 
it from her hands, went away. 

Agrippina then went to JJalotus, the servant 



130 Neeo. [A.D. 54. 

Locusta's poison is administered to Claudius. 

who waited upon the emperor and gave him his 
food, — and contrived some means to induce him 
to administer the dose. Halotus was the em- 
peror's " taster," as it was termed : — that is, it 
was his duty to taste first, himself, every ar- 
ticle of food or drink which he oifered to his 
master, for the express purpose of making it 
sure that nothing was poisoned. It is obvious, 
however, that many ways might be devised 
for evading such a precaution as this, and 
Halotus and Agrippina arranged it, that the 
poison, in this case, should be put upon a dish 
of mushrooms, and served to the emperor at 
his supper. The taster was to avoid, by 
means of some dextrous management, the 
taking of any portion of the fatal ingredients 
himself. The plan thus arranged was put 
into execution. The emperor ate the mush- 
rooms, and Agrippina tremblingly awaited 
the result. 

She was, however, disappointed in the effect 
that was produced. "Whether the mixture that 
Locusta had prepared was not sufficiently 
powerful, or whether Halotus in his extreme 
anxiety not to get any of the poisonous ingre- 
dients himself failed to administer them ef- 
fectually to his intended victim, the emperor 



A.D. 54.] Nero an Emperor. 131 

The poison ineffectual. A new plan. The leather. 

seemed to continue afterward much as lie had 
been before, — still sick, but without any new 
or more dangerous symptoms. Of course, 
Agrippina was in a state of great solicitude 
and apprehension. Having incurred the ter- 
rible guilt and danger necessarily involved 
in an attempt to poison her husband, she 
could not draw back. The work that was 
begun must be carried through now, she 
thought, at all hazards, to its termination ; 
and she immediately set herself at work to 
devise some means of reaching her victim 
with poison, which would avoid the taster al- 
together, and thus not be liable to any inter- 
ference on his part, dictated either by his 
fidelity to his master or his fears for himself. 
She went, accordingly, to the emperor's 
physician and found means to enlist him in 
her cause ; and a plan was formed between 
them which proved effectual in accomplishing 
her designs. The manner in which they con- 
trived it was this. The physician, at a time 
when the emperor was lying sick and in dis- 
tress upon his couch, came to him and pro- 
posed that he should open his mouth and al- 
low the physician to touch his throat with the 
tip of a feather, to promote vomiting, which 



132 



N 



EEO. 



[A.D. 54. 



Poison administered by the physician. 



Claudius dies. 




THE POISONING OF CLAUDIUS. 



he said he thought would relieve him. The 
emperor yielded to this treatment, and the 
feather was applied. It had previously been 
dipped in a very virulent and fatal poison. 
The poison thus administered took effect, and 
Claudius, after passing the night in agony, 
died early in the morning. 

Of course, Agrippina, when her husband's 
dying struggles were over, and she was satis- 
fied that life was extinct, experienced for the 



B.C. 54.] Nero an Emperor. 133 

Agrippina conceals her husband's death. 

moment a feeling of gratification and relief. 
It might have been expected, however, that 
the pangs of remorse, after the deed was per- 
petrated, would have followed very hard upon 
the termination of her suspense and anxiety. 
But it was not so. Much still remained to be 
done, and Agrippina was fully prepared to 
meet all the responsibilities of the crisis. The 
death of her husband took place very early in 
the morning, the poisoning operations having 
been performed in the night, and having ac- 
complished their final effect about the break 
of day. Agrippina immediately perceived 
that the most effectual means of accomplish- 
ing the end which she had in view, was not 
to allow of any interval to elapse between the 
announcement of the emperor's death and the 
bringing forward of her son for induction into 
office as his successor ; since during such an 
interval, if one were allowed, the Roman peo- 
ple would, of course, discuss the question, 
whether Britannicus or Nero should succeed 
to power, and a strong party might possibly 
organize itself to enforce the claims of the 
former. She determined, therefore, to con- 
ceal the death of her husband until noon, the 
hour most favorable for publicly proclaiming 



134 Nero. [A.D. 54. 

Agrippina's measures. Her disimulation. 

any great event, and then to announce the 
death of the father and the accession of the 
adopted son together. 

She accordingly took prompt and decisive 
measures to prevent its being known that the 
emperor was dead. The immediate attend- 
ants at his bedside could not indeed be easily 
deceived, but they were required to be silent 
in respect to what had occurred, and to go on 
with all their services and ministrations just 
as if their patient were still alive. Visitors 
were excluded from the room, and messenger 
were kept coming to and fro with baths, 
medicaments, and other appliances, such as 
a desperate crisis in a sick chamber might be 
supposed to require. The Senate was con- 
vened, too, in the course of the morning, and 
Agrippina, as if in great distress, sent a mes- 
sage to them, informing them of her husband's 
dangerous condition, and entreating them to 
join with the chief civil and religious func- 
tionaries of the city, in offering vows, suppli- 
cations, and sacrifices for his recovery. She 
herself, in the mean time, went from room to 
room about the palace, overwhelmed to all 
appearance, with anxiety and grief. She 
kept Britannicus and his sisters all the time 



A.D. 54.] Nero an Emperor. 135 

Agrippina's plans for proclaiming Nero. 



with her, folding the boy in her arms with an 
appearance of the fondest affection, and tell- 
ing him how heart-broken she w T as at the dan- 
gerous condition of his father. She kept 
Britannieus thus constantly near to her, in 
order to prevent the possibility of his being 
seized and carried away to the camp by any 
party that might be disposed to make him 
emperor rather than Nero, when it should be 
known that Claudius had ceased to reign. As 
an additional defense against this danger, 
Agrippina brought up a cohort of the life- 
guards around the palace, and caused them 
to be stationed in such a manner that every 
avenue of approach to the edifice was com- 
pletely secured. The cohort which she se- 
lected was one that she thought she could 
most safely rely upon, not only for guarding 
the palace while she remained within it, but 
for proclaiming Nero as emperor when she 
should at last be ready to come forth and an- 
nounce the death of her husband. 

At length, about noon, she deemed that the 
hour had arrived, and after placing Britan- 
nicus and his sisters in some safe custody 
within the palace, she ordered the gates to be 
thrown open, and prepared to come forth to 



136 Nero. [A.D. 54. 

Seneca and Burrus. History of Seneca. 

announce the death of Claudius, and to pre- 
sent Nero to the army and to the people of 
Rome, as his rightful successor. She was 
aided and supported in these preparations 
by a number of officers and attendants, 
among whom were the two whom she had de- 
termined upon as the two principal ministers 
of her son's government. These were Seneca 
and Burrus. Seneca was to be minister of 
state, and Burrus the chief military com- 
mander. 

Both these men had long been in the ser- 
vice of Agrippina and of Nero. Seneca was 
now over fifty years of age. He was very 
highly distinguished as a scholar and rheto- 
rician while he lived, and his numerous writ- 
ings have given him great celebrity since, in 
every age. He commenced his career in 
Rome as a public advocate in the Forum, 
during the reign of Caligula. After Cali- 
gula's death he incurred the displeasure of 
Claudius in the first year of that emperor's 
reign, and he was banished to the island of 
Corsica, where he remained in neglect and 
obscurity for about eight years. When at 
length Messalina was put to death, and the 
emperor married Agrippina, Seneca was par- 



A.D. 54.] Nero an Emperor, 137 

Account of Burrus. His military rank. 

doned and recalled through Agrippina's in- 
fluence, and after that he devoted himself 
very faithfully to the service of the empress 
and of her son. Agrippina appointed him 
Nero's preceptor, and gave him the direction 
of all the studies which her son pursued in 
qualifying himself for the duties of a public 
orator ; and now that she was about attempt- 
ing to advance her son to the supreme com- 
mand, she intended to make the philosopher 
his principal secretary and minister of state. 

Burrus was the commander of the life- 
guards, or as the office was called in those 
days, prefect of the praetorium. The life- 
guards, or body-guards, whose duty consisted 
exclusively in attending upon, escorting and 
protecting the emperor, consisted of ten co- 
horts, each containing about a thousand men. 
The soldiers designated for this service were 
of course selected from the whole army, and 
as no expense was spared in providing them 
with arms, accoutrements and other appoint- 
ments, they formed the finest body of troops 
in the world. They received double pay, and 
enjoyed special privileges ; and every ar- 
rangement was made to secure their entire 
subserviency to the will, and attachment to 



138 JNebo. [A.D. 54. 

The Praetorian cohorts. Agrippina' s plans. 

the person, of the reigning emperor. Of 
course such a corps would be regarded by all 
the other divisions of the army as entirely 
superior in rank and consideration, to the or- 
dinary service ; and the general who com- 
manded them would take precedence of every 
other military commander, being second only 
to the emperor himself. Agrippina had con- 
trived to raise Burrus to this post through her 
influence with Claudius. He was a friend to 
her interests before, and he became still more 
devoted to her after receiving such an ap- 
pointment through her instrumentality. — 
Agrippina now depended upon Burrus to 
carry the Praetorian cohorts in favor of her 
son. 

Accordingly at noon of the day on which 
Claudius died, when all things were ready, 
the palace gates were thrown open and Agrip- 
pina came forth with her son, accompanied 
by Burrus and by other attendants. The co- 
hort on duty was drawn up under arms at the 
palace gates. Burrus presented Nero to them 
as the successor of Claudius, and at a signal 
from him they all responded with shouts and 
acclamations. Some few of the soldiers did 
not join in this cheering, but looked on in si- 



A.D. 54.] Neeo an Emperor. 139 

Nero brought forward. His promises to the army. 

lence, and then inquired of one another what 
had become of Britannicus. But there were 
none to answer this question, and as no one 
appeared to proclaim Britannicus or to speak 
in his name, the whole cohort finally acqui- 
esced in the decision to which the majority, at 
the instigation of Burrus, seemed inclined. A 
sort of chair or open palanquin was provided, 
and Nero was mounted upon it. He was 
borne in this way by the soldiers through the 
streets of the city, escorted by the cohort on 
the way, till he reached the camp. As the 
procession moved along, the air was filled with 
the shouts and acclamations of the soldiers 
and of the people. 

When the party arrived at the camp Nero 
w^as presented to the army, and the officers 
and soldiers being drawn up before him he 
delivered a brief speech which Seneca had pre- 
j3ared for the occasion. The principal point 
in this speech, and the one on which its effect 
was expected to depend, was a promise of a 
large distribution of money. The soldiers al- 
ways expected such a donative on the accession 
of any new emperor, — but Nero, in order to 
suppress any latent opposition which might be 
felt against his claims, made his proposed dis- 



140 Neeo. [A.D. 54. 

He is proclaimed. General acquiescence in his elevation. 

tribution unusually large. The soldiers read- 
ily yielded to the influence of this promise, 
and with one accord proclaimed Nero empe- 
ror. The Senate was soon afterward con- 
vened, and partly through the influence of 
certain prominent members whom Agrippina 
had taken measures to secure in her interest, 
and partly through the general conviction that 
as things were the claims of Britannicus could 
not be successfully maintained, the choice of 
the army was confirmed. And as the tidings 
of what had taken place at the capital gradu- 
ally spread through Italy and to the remoter 
portions of the empire, the provinces, and the 
various legions at their encampments, one 
after another acquiesced in the result, both 
because on the one hand they had no strong 
motive for dissenting, and on the other, they 
had individually no power to make any effec- 
tual resistance. Thus Nero, at the age of 
seventeen became emperor of Rome, and as 
such the almost absolute monarch of nearly 
half the world. 

It was, however, by no means the design 
of Agrippina that her son should actually 
wield, himself, all this power. Her motive, 
in all her manoeuvers for bringing Nero to 



A.D. 54.] Nero an Emperor. 141 

Agrippina's real designs in the elevation of her son. 

this lofty position, was a personal, not a ma- 
ternal ambition. She was herself to reign, 
not he ; and she had brought him forward 
as the nominal sovereign only, in order that 
she might herself exercise the power by act- 
ing in his name. Her plan was to secure her 
own ascendency, by so arranging and direct- 
ing the course of affairs that the young em- 
peror himself should have as little as possible 
to do with the duties of his office ; and that 
instead of direct action on his part, all the 
functions of the government should be fulfilled 
by officers of various grades, whom she was her- 
self to appoint and to sustain, and who, since 
they would know that they were dependent 
on Agrippina's influence for their elevation, 
would naturally be subservient to her will. 
Nero being so young, she thought that he 
could easily be led to acquiesce in such man- 
agement as this, especially if he were indulged 
in the full enjoyment of the luxuries and 
pleasures, innocent or otherwise, which his 
high station would enable him to command, 
and which are usually so tempting to one of 
his character and years. 

The first of Agrippina's measures was to 
make arrangement for a most imposing and 



142 Nero. [A.JD. 54 

The funeral solemnities. Nero's oration. The panegyric. 

magnificent funeral, as the testimonial of the 
deep conjugal affection which she entertained 
for her husband, and the profound grief with 
which she was affected by his death ! The 
most extensive preparations were made for 
this funeral ; and the pomp and parade which 
were displayed in Rome on the day of the 
ceremony, had never been surpassed, it was 
said, by any similar spectacle on any former 
occasion. In the course of the services that 
were performed, a funeral oration was deliv- 
ered by Nero to the immense concourse of 
people that were convened. The oration was 
written by Seneca. It was a high panegyric 
upon the virtues and the renown of the de- 
ceased, and it represented in the brightest 
colors, and with great magnificence of diction, 
his illustrious birth, the high offices to which 
he had attained, his taste for the liberal arts, 
and the peace and tranquillity which had pre- 
vailed throughout the empire during his reign. 
To write a panegyric upon such a man as 
Claudius had been, must surely have proved 
a somewhat difficult task ; but Seneca accom- 
plished it very adroitly, and the people, aided 
by the solemnity of the occasion, listened with 
proper gravity, until at length the orator be- 



A.D. 54.J Nero an Emperor. 143 

The senate is convened. Nero's inaugural address. 

gan to speak of the judgment and the political 
wisdom of Claudius, and then the listeners 
found that they could preserve their decorum 
no longer. The audience looked at each other, 
and there was a general laugh. The young 
orator, though for the moment somewhat dis- 
concerted at this interruption, soon recovered 
himself, and went on to the end of his dis- 
course. 

After these funeral ceremonies had been 
performed, the Senate was convened, and 
Nero appeared before them to make his in- 
augural address. This address also, was of 
course prepared for him by Seneca, under di- 
rections from Agrippina, who, after revolving 
the subject fully in her mind, had determined 
what it would be most politic to say. She 
knew very well that until the power of her 
son became consolidated and settled, it became 
him to be modest in his pretensions and claims, 
and to profess great deference and respect for 
the powers and prerogatives of the Senate. 
In the speech, therefore, which Nero delivered 
in the senate-chamber, he said that in assum- 
ing the imperial dignity, which he had con- 
sented to do in obedience to the will of his 
father the late emperor, to the general voice 



144 Nero. [A.D. 54. 

Nero's excellent promises. Satisfaction of the Senate. 

of the army, and the universal suffrages of the 
people, he did not intend to usurp the civil 
powers of the state, but to leave to the Senate, 
and to the various civil functionaries of the 
city, their rightful and proper jurisdiction. 
He considered himself as merely the com- 
mander-in-chief of the armies of the common- 
wealth, and as such, his duty would be simply 
to execute the national will. He promised, 
moreover, a great variety of reforms in the 
administration, all tending to diminish the 
authority of the prince, and to protect the 
people from danger of oppression by military 
power. In a word, it was his settled purpose, 
he said, to restore the government to its pris- 
tine simplicity and purity, and to administer 
it in strict accordance with the true principles 
of the Roman Constitution, as originally es- 
tablished by the founders of the common- 
wealth. The professions and promises which 
Nero thus made to the Senate, or rather which 
he recited to them at the dictation of his 
mother and of Seneca, gave great satisfaction 
to all w^ho heard them. All opposition to the 
claims which he advanced, disappeared, and 
the heart of Agrippina was filled with glad- 



&.D. 54. j Nero an Emperor. 145 



Agrippina assumes the real power. 



ness and joy at finding that all her plans had 
been so fully and successfully realized. 

The official authority of Nero being thus 
generally acknowledged, Agrippina began 
immediately to pursue a system of policy de- 
signed to secure the possession of all real 
power for herself, leaving only the name and 
semblance of it to her son. She appeared in 
all public places with him, sharing with him 
the pomp, and parade, and insignia of office, 
as if she were associated with him in official 
power. She received and opened the dis- 
patches and sent answers to them. She con- 
sidered and decided questions of state, and 
issued her orders. She caused several influ- 
ential persons whom she supposed likely to 
take part with Britannicus, or at least secretly 
to favor his claims, to be put to death, either 
by violence or by poison ; and she would have 
caused the death of many others in this way, 
if Burrus and Seneca had not interposed their 
influence to prevent it. She did all these 
things in a somewhat covert and cautious 
manner, acting generally in Nero's name, so 
as not to attract too much attention at first to 
her measures. There was danger, she knew, 
of awakening resistance and opposition, as 

K 



146 Nero. [A.D. 54. 

Discontent of the ministers. An incident. 

public sentiment among the Romans had 
always been entirely averse to the idea of the 
submission of men, in any form, to the govern- 
ment of women. Agrippina accordingly did 
not attempt openly to preside in the senate- 
chamber, but she made arrangements for 
having the meetings of the Senate sometimes 
held in an apartment of the palace where she 
could attend, during the sitting, in an adjoin- 
ing cabinet, concealed from view by a screen 
or arras, and thus listen to the debate. Even 
this, however, was strongly objected to by 
some of the senators. They considered this 
arrangement of Agrippina's to be present at 
their debates as intended to intimidate them 
into the support of such measures as she 
might recommend, or be supposed to favor, 
and thus as seriously interfering with the 
freedom of their discussions. On one occasion 
Agrippina made a bolder experiment still, by 
coming into the hall where a company of 
foreign embassadors were to have audience, 
as if it were a part of her official duty to join 
in receiving them. Her son, the emperor, 
and the government officers around him, were 
confounded when they saw her coming, and 
at first did not know what to do. Seneca, 



A.D. 54.] Nero an Emperor. 147 

Reception of Agrippina in the hall of audience. 

however, with great presence of mind, said to 
Nero, " Your mother is entering, go and re- 
ceive her." Hereupon, Nero left his chair of 
state, and accompanied by his ministers, went 
to meet his mother, and received her with 
great deference and respect; and the attention 
of all present was wholly devoted to Agrip- 
pina while she remained, as to a very distin- 
guished and highly honored guest, — the busi- 
ness which had called them together being 
suspended on her account until she withdrew. 
Notwithstanding some occasional difficul- 
ties and embarrassments of this kind, every 
thing went on for a time very prosperously, 
in accordance with Agrippina's wishes and 
plans. Nero was very young, and little dis- 
posed at first to thwart or to resist his mother's 
measures. He was, however, all the time 
growing older, and he soon began to grow 
restive under the domination which Agrip- 
pina exercised over him, and to form plans 
and determinations of his own. There follow- 
ed, as might have been expected, a terrible 
conflict for the possession of power between 
him and his mother. The history and the ter- 
mination of this struggle will form the subject 
of the two following chapters. 



148 Nero. [A.D. 54. 

Britannicus and Acte. Indignation of Agrippina. 



Chapter VII. 
Britannicus. 

THE occasion which led to the first open 
outbreak between Agrippina and her son 
was the discovery on her part of a secret and 
guilty attachment which had been formed be- 
tween Nero and a young girl of the palace 
whose name was Acte. Acte was originally a 
slave from Asia Minor, having been purchas- 
ed there and sent to Rome, very probably on 
account of her personal beauty. She had 
been subsequently enfranchised, but she re- 
mained still in the palace, forming a part of 
the household of Agrippina. Nero had never 
felt any strong attachment for Octavia. His 
marriage he had always regarded as merely 
one of his mother's political manceuvers, and 
he did not consider himself as really bound to 
his wife by any tie. He was, besides, still 
but a boy, though unusually precocious and 
mature ; and he had always been accustomed 
to the most unlimited indulgence of the pro- 
pensities and passions of youth. 



A.D. 55.] Britannicus. 149 

Otho and Senecio. Perplexity of Nero's n»inisters. 

The young prince, as is usual in such cases, 
was led on and encouraged in the vicious 
course of life that he was now beginning to 
pursue, by certain dissolute companions whose 
society he fell into about this time. There 
were two young men in particular whose in- 
fluence over him was of the worst character. 
Their names were Otho and Senecio. Otho 
was descended from a very distinguished 
family, and his rank and social position in 
Roman society were very high. Senecio, on 
the other hand, was of a very humble extrac- 
tion — his father being an emancipated slave. 
The three young men were, however, nearly 
of the same age, and being equally unprici- 
pled and dissolute, they banded themselves to- 
gether in the pursuit and enjoyment of vicious 
indulgences. Nero made Otho and Senecio 
his confidants in his connection with Acte, 
and it was in a great measure through their 
assistance and co-operation that he accom- 
plished his ends. 

When Seneca and Burrus were informed of 
Nero's attachment to Acte, and of the connec- 
tion which had been established between 
them, they were at first much perplexed to 
know what to do. They were men of strict 



150 Nero. [AD. 55. 

They determine to connive at Nero's new connection. 

moral principle themselves, and as Nero had 
been their pupil, and was still, while they 
continued his ministers, in some sense under 
their charge, they thought it might be their 
duty to remonstrate with him on the course 
which he was pursuing, and endeavor to sep- 
arate him from his vicious companions, and 
bring him back, if possible, to his duty to 
Octavia. But then, on the other hand, they 
said to each other that any attempt on their 
part really to control the ungovernable and 
lawless propensities of such a soul as Nero's 
must be utterly unavailing, and since he must 
necessarily, as they thought, be expected to 
addict himself to vicious indulgences in some 
form, the connection with Acte might perhaps 
be as little to be dreaded as any. On the 
whole, they concluded not to interfere. 

'Not so, however, with Agrippina. When 
she came to learn of this new attachment 
which her son had formed, she was very much 
disturbed and alarmed. Her distress, how- 
ever, did not arise from any of those feelings 
of solicitude which, as a mother, she might 
have been expected to feel for the moral 
purity of her boy, but from fears that, through 
the influence and ascendency which such a 



A.D. 55.] Beitannicus. 151 



Agrippina is greatly enraged. 



favorite as Acte might acquire, she should 
lose her own power. She knew very well 
how absolute and complete the domination 
of such a favorite sometimes became, and she 
trembled at the danger which threatened her 
of being supplanted by Acte, and thus losing 
her control. 

Agrippina was very violent and imperious 
in her temper, and had long been accus- 
tomed to rule those around her with a very- 
high hand ; and now, without properly con- 
sidering that Nero had passed beyond the 
age in which he could be treated as a mere 
boy, she attacked him at once with the bit- 
terest reproaches and invectives, and insisted 
that his connection with Acte should be im- 
mediately abandoned. Nero resisted her, 
and stoutly refused to comply with her de- 
mands. Agrippina was fired with indigna- 
tion and rage. She filled the palace with her 
complaints and criminations. She accused 
Nero of the basest ingratitude toward her, 
in repaying the long-continued and faithful 
exertions and sacrifices which she had made 
to promote his interests, by thus displacing 
her from his confidence and regard, to make 
room for this wretched favorite, and of false- 



152 Nero. [AD. 55. 

Her furious invectives. She becomes calm again. 

ness and faithlessness to Octavia, in aban- 
doning her, his lawful wife, for the society 
of an enfranchised slave. Agrippina was 
extremely violent in these denunciations. She 
scolded, she stormed, she raved — acting mani- 
festly under the impulse of blind and uncon- 
trollable passion. Her passion was obviously 
blind, for the course to which it impelled her 
was plainly very far from tending to accom- 
plish any object which she could be supposed 
to have in view. 

At length, when the first fury of her vexa- 
tion and anger had spent itself, she began to 
reflect, as people generally do when recover- 
ing from a passion, that she was spending 
her strength in working mischief to her own 
cause. This reflection helped to promote the 
subsiding of her anger. Her loud denuncia- 
tions gradually died away, and were suc- 
ceeded by mutterings and murmurings. At 
length she became silent altogether, and after 
an interval of reflection, she concluded no 
longer to give way to her clamorous and use- 
less anger, but calmly to consider what it was 
best to do. 

She soon determined that the wisest and 
most politic plan after all, would be for her 



A.D. 55.] Britannicus. 153 

Agrippina changes her policy. 

to acquiesce in the fancy of her son, and en- 
deavor to retain her ascendency over him by 
aiding and countenancing him in his pleas- 
ures. She accordingly changed by degrees 
the tone which she had assumed toward him, 
and began to address him in words of favor 
and indulgence. She said that it was natural, 
after all, at his time of life, to love, and that 
his superior rank and station entitled him to 
some degree of immunity from the restric- 
tions imposed upon ordinary men. Acte 
was indeed a beautiful girl, and she was not 
surprised, she said, that he had conceived an 
affection for her. The indulgence of his love 
was indeed attended with difficulty and dan- 
ger, but, if he would submit the affair to her 
care and management, she could take such 
precautions that all would be well. She 
apologized for the warmth with which she 
had at first spoken, and attributed it to the 
jealous and watchful interest which a mother 
must always feel in all that relates to the 
prosperity and happiness of her son. She 
said, moreover, that she was now ready and 
willing to enter into and promote his views, 
and she offered him the use of certain private 
apartments of her own in the palace, to meet 



154 Nero. [A.D. 55. 

Nero rejects his mother's advances. His treatment of her. 

Acte in, saying that, by such an arrangement, 
and with the precautions that she could use, 
he could enjoy the society of his favorite 
whenever he pleased, without interruption 
and without danger. 

Nero very naturally reported all this to his 
companions. They of course advised him not 
to believe any thing that his mother said, nor 
to trust to her in any way. "It is all," said 
they, " an artful device on her part to get you 
into her power ; and no young man of pride 
and spirit will submit to the disgrace of being 
under his mother's management and control." 
The young profligate listened to the counsels 
of his associates, and rejected the overtures 
which his mother had made him. He con- 
tinued his attachment to Acte, but kept as 
much as possible aloof from Agrippina. 

He desired, however, if possible, to avoid 
an open quarrel with his mother, and so he 
made some effort to treat her with attention 
and respect, in his general bearing toward 
her, while he persisted in refusing to admit 
her to his confidence in respect to Acte. 
These general attentions were, however, by 
no means sufficient to satisfy Agrippina. The 
influence of Acte was what she feared, and 



A.D. 55.] Britannicus. 155 



He makes her a present of jewelry. 



she well knew that her own power was in 
imminent danger of being undermined and 
overthrown, unless she could find some means 
of bringing her son's connection with his fa- 
vorite under her own control. Thus the calm 
that seemed for a short time to reign between 
Nero and his mother was an armistice rather 
than a peace, and this armistice was brought 
at length to a sudden termination by an act 
of Nero's which he intended as an act of con- 
ciliation and kindness, but which proved to be 
in effect the means of awakening his mother's 
anger anew, and of exciting her even to a 
more violent exasperation than she had felt 
before. 

It seems that among the other treasures of 
the imperial palace at Rome there was an 
extensive wardrobe of very costly female 
dresses and decorations, which was appropri- 
ated to the use of the wives and mothers of 
the emperors. Nero conceived the idea of 
making a present to his mother, from this col- 
lection. He accordingly selected a magnifi- 
cent dress, and a considerable quantity of 
jewelry, and sent them to Agrippina. In- 
stead of being gratified with this gift, how- 
ever, Agrippina received it as an affront. 



156 



Neko. 



[A.D. 55. 



Agrippina is enraged. 




THE JEWKLRY. 



She had been so long accustomed to consider 
herself as the first personage in the imperial 
household, that she regarded all such things 
as rightfully her own ; and she consequently 
looked upon the act of Kero in formally pre- 
senting her with a small portion of these treas- 
ures, as a simple impertinence, and as in- 
tended to notify her that he considered all 
that remained of the collection as his property, 
and thenceforth as such subject to his exclu- 



A.D. 55.] Britannicus. 157 

Nero resolves to subdue his mother. His plan. 

sive control. Instead therefore of being ap- 
peased by Nero's offering she was greatly 
enraged by it. The angry invectives which 
she uttered were duly reported to the empe- 
ror, and his indignation and resentment were 
aroused by them anew, and thus the breach 
between the mother and the son became wider 
than ever. 

In fact Nero began to perceive very clearly 
that if he intended to secure for himself any 
thing more than the empty semblance of 
power, he must at once do something effectual 
to curb the domineering and ambitious spirit 
of his mother. After revolving this subject 
in his mind, he finally concluded that the 
measure which promised to be most decisive 
was to dismiss a certain public officer named 
Pallas, who had been brought forward into 
public life many years before by Agrippina, 
and was now the chief instrument of her po- 
litical power. Pallas was the public treasu- 
rer, and he had amassed such enormous 
wealth by his management of the public 
finances, that at one time when Claudius was 
complaining of the impoverished condition 
of his exchequer, some one replied that he 
would soon be rich enough if he could but 



158 Nero. [A.D. 55. 

Pallas dismissed. His withdrawal. 

induce his treasurer to receive him into part- 
nership. 

Pallas, as has already been said, had been 
originally brought forward into public life by 
the influence of Agrippina, and he had al- 
ways been Agrippina's chief reliance in all 
her political schemes. He had aided very 
effectually in promoting her marriage with 
Claudius ; and had co-operated with her in 
all her subsequent measures ; and Nero con- 
sidered him now as his mother's chief sup- 
porter and ally. Nero resolved, accordingly, 
to dismiss him from office ; and in order to 
induce him to retire peaceably, it was agreed 
that no inquiry or investigation should be 
made into the state of his accounts, but every 
thing should be considered as balanced and 
settled. Pallas acceded to this proposal. 
During the whole course of his official career, 
he had lived in great magnificence and splen- 
dor, and now T in laying down his office, he 
withdrew from the imperial palaces, at the 
head of a long train of attendants, and with a 
degree of pomp and parade which attracted 
universal attention. The event was regarded 
by the public as a declaration on the part of 
Nero, that thenceforth he himself and not his 



A.D. 55.] Beitannicus. 159 

Agrippiua's bitter reproaches. Her threats. 

mother was to rule ; and Agrippina, of course, 
fell at once, many degrees, from the high 
position which she had held in the public 
estimation. 

She was, of course, greatly enraged, and 
though utterly helpless in respect to resist- 
ance, she stormed about the palace, uttering 
the loudest and most violent expressions of 
resentment and anger. 

During the coutinuance of this paroxysm 
Agrippina bitterly reproached her son for 
what she termed his cruel ingratitude. It 
was altogether to her, she said, that he owed 
his elevation. For a long course of years she 
had been making ceaseless exertions, had sub- 
mitted to the greatest sacrifices, and had even 
committed the most atrocious crimes, to raise 
him to the high position to which he had at- 
tained ; and now, so soon as he had attained 
it, and had made himself sure, as he fancied, 
of his foothold, his first act was to turn basely 
and ungratefully against the hand that had 
raised him. But notwithstanding his fancied 
security, she would teach him, she said, that 
her power was still to be feared. Britannicus 
was still alive, and he was after all the right- 
ful heir, and since her son had proved him- 



160 Nero. [A.D. 55. 

She declares that she will cause Nero to be deposed. 

self so unworthy of the efforts and sacrifices 
that she had made for him, she would forth- 
with take measures to restore to Britannicus 
what she had so unjustly taken from him. 
She would immediately divulge all the dread- 
ful secrets which were connected with Nero's 
elevation. She would make known the arts 
bv means of which her marriage with Clau- 
dius had been effected, and the adoption of 
Nero as Claudius's son and heir had been 
secured. She would confess the murder of 
Claudius, and the usurpation on her part of 
the imperial power for Nero her son. Nero 
would, in consequence, be deposed, and Bri- 
tannicus would succeed him, and thus the base 
ingratitude and treachery toward his mother 
which Nero had displayed w^ould be avenged. 
This plan, she declared, she would immedi- 
ately carry into effect. She would take Bri- 
tannicus to the camp, and appeal to the army 
in his name. Both Burrus and Seneca would 
join her, and her undutiful and treacherous 
son would be stripped forthwith of his ill- 
gotten power. 

These words of Agrippina were not, how- 
ever, the expressions of sober purpose, really 
and honestly entertained. They were the 



A.D. 55.] Britannicus. 161 

Probable character and meaning of these threats. 

wild and unthinking threats and denuncia- 
tions which are prompted in such cases by 
the frenzy of helpless and impotent rage. It 
is not at all probable that she had any serious 
intention of attempting such desperate meas- 
ures as she threatened ; for if she had really 
entertained such a design, she would have 
carefully kept it secret while making her ar- 
rangements for carrying it into execution. 

Still these threats and denunciations, though 
they were obviously prompted by a blind and 
temporary rage, which it might be reasonably 
supposed would soon subside, made a deep 
impression upon Nero's mind. In the first 
place, he was angry with his mother for dar- 
ing to utter them. Then there was at least a 
possibility that she might really undertake to 
put them in execution, as no one could fore- 
see what her desperate frenzy might lead 
her to do. Then besides, even if Agrippina's 
resentment were to subside, and she should 
seem entirely to abandon all idea of ever exe- 
cuting her threats, Nero was extremely un- 
willing to remain thus in his mother's power 
— exposed continually to fresh outbreaks of 
her hostility, whenever her anger or her ca- 
price might arouse her again. The threats 



162 Eeko. [A.D. 55. 



The game of " who shall be king ?" 



which his mother uttered made him, there- 
; fore, extremely restless and uneasy. 

A circumstance occurred about this time 
which, though very trifling in itself, had the 
effect greatly to increase the jealousy and fear 
in respect to Britannicus, which Nero was 
inclined to feel. It seems that among the 
other amusements with which the company 
were accustomed to entertain themselves in 
the social gatherings that took place, from 
time to time, in the imperial palace, there was 
a certain game which they used to play, 
called, "Who shall be king?" The game 
consisted of choosing one of the party by lot 
to be king, and then of requiring all the others 
to obey the commands, whatever they might 
be, which the king so chosen might issue. 
Of course, the success of the game depended 
upon the art and ingenuity of the king in 
prescribing such things to be done by his 
various subjects, as would most entertain and 
amuse the company. What the forfeit or 
penalty was, that the rules of the game re- 
quired, in case of disobedience, is not stated ; 
but every one was considered bound to obey 
the commands that were laid upon him, — - 



A.D. 55.] Britannicus. 163 



Nero's orders to Britannicus. 



provided, of course, that the thing required 
was within his power. 

Nero himself, it appears, was accustomed 
to join in these sports, and one evening, when 
a party were all playing it together in his 
palace, it fell to Ms lot to be king. "When it 
came to be the turn of Britannicus to receive 
orders, Nero directed him to go out into the 
middle of the room, and sing a song to the 
company. This was a very severe require- 
ment for one so young as Britannicus, and so 
little accustomed to take an active part in the 
festivities of so gay a company ; and the mo- 
tive of Nero in making it, was supposed to be 
a feeling of ill-will, and a desire to tease his 
brother, by placing him in an awkward and 
embarrassing situation — one in which he would 
be compelled either to interrupt the game by 
refusing to obey the orders of the king, or to 
expose himself to ridicule by making a fruit- 
less attempt to sing a song. 

To the surprise of all, however, Britannicus 
rose from his seat without any apparent hesi- 
tation or embarrassment, walked out upon the 
floor, and took his position. The attention of 
the whole company was fixed upon him. All 
sounds were hushed. 



164 Nero. [A.D. 55. 



The song which Britannicus sung. 



He began to sing. The song was a lament, 
describing in plaintive words and in mournful 
music, the situation and the sorrows of a young 
prince, excluded wrongfully from the throne 
of his ancestors.* The whole company lis- 
tened with profound attention, charmed at first 
by the artless simplicity of the music, and the 
grace and beauty of the boy. As Britannicus 
proceeded in his song, and the meaning of it, 
in its application to his own case, began to be 
perceived, a universal sympathy for him was 
felt, by the whole assembly, and when he con- 
cluded and resumed his seat, the apartment 

* By some it has been thought that the song which Britan- 
nicus sung on this occasion was one which he had learned 
before — one perhaps which he had accidentally seen or heard, 
and which had attracted his attention on account of its adapt- 
edness to his own case ; and there is a song of Ennius, an an- 
cient writer, which is sometimes cited as the one he sang on 
this occasion. Others say that the performance was original 
and extemporaneous ; that the young prince, excited by his 
wrongs, and by the peculiar circumstances of the occasion, 
gave utterance to his own feelings in words which suggested 
themselves to him on the spot. To do this would require, of 
course, great intellectual readiness and ability, — but the dif- 
ficulty of such a performance would be somewhat diminished 
by the fact, that the ancient poetry was wholly different 
from that of modern times, being marked only by a meas- 
ured cadence, unconnected with rhyme. 



A.D. 55.] Britannicus. 165 

Nero resolves to resort to poison. Pollio and Locusta. 

was filled with suppressed murmurs of ap- 
plause. The effect of this scene upon the 
mind of Nero, was of course only to awaken 
feelings of vexation and anger. He looked 
on in moody silence, uttering mentally the 
fiercest threats and denunciations against the 
object of his jealousy, whom he was now com- 
pelled to look upon, more than ever before, as 
a dangerous and formidable rival. He de- 
termined, in fact, that Britannicus should die. 

In considering by what means he should 
undertake to effect his purpose, it seemed to 
Nero most prudent to employ poison. There 
was no pretext whatever for any criminal 
charge against the young prince, and Nero 
did not dare to resort to open violence. He 
determined, therefore, to resort to poison, and 
to employ Locusta to prepare it. 

Locusta, the reader will remember, was the 
woman whom Agrippina had employed for 
the murder of her husband, Claudius. She 
was still in custody as a convict, being under 
sentence of death for her crimes. She was in 
charge of a certain captain named Pollio, an 
officer of the Praetorian guard. Nero sent for 
Pollio, and directed him to procure from his 
prisoner a poisonous potion suitable for the 



166 Nebo. [A.D. 55. 

The plan at first fails. A second attempt. 

purpose intended. The potion was prepared, 
and soon afterward it w r as administered. At 
least it was given to certain attendants that 
were employed about the person of Britan- 
nicus, with orders that they should administer 
it. The expected effect, however, was not 
produced. "Whether it was because the po- 
tion which Locusta had prepared was too 
weak, or because it was not really adminis- 
tered by those who received it in charge, no 
result followed, and Nero was greatly enraged. 
He sent for Pollio, and assailed him with re- 
proaches and threats, and as for Locusta, he 
declared that she should be immediately put 
to death. They were both miserable cowards, 
he said, who had not the firmness to do their 
duty. Pollio, in reply, made the most earnest 
protestations of his readiness to do whatever 
his master should command. He assured 
Nero that the failure of their attempt was 
owing entirely to some accidental cause, and 
that if he would give Locusta one more op- 
portunity to make the trial, he would guaran- 
tee that she would prepare a mixture that 
would kill Britannicus as quick as a dagger 
would do it. 

Nero ordered that this should immediately 



A.D. 55.] Britannicus. 167 

A second preparation. . Mode of administering the poison. 

be done. Locusta was sent for, and was shut 
up with Pollio in an apartment adjoining that 
of the emperor, with directions to make the 
mixture there, and then to administer it forth- 
with. Their lives were to depend upon the 
result. The poison was soon prepared. There 
was, however, a serious difficulty in the way 
of administering it, since a potion so sudden 
and violent in its character as this was intend- 
ed to be, might be expected to take immediate 
effect upon the taster, and so produce an alarm 
which would prevent Britannicus from re- 
ceiving it. To obviate this difficulty, Pollio 
and Locusta cunningly contrived the follow- 
ing plan. 

They mixed the poison when it was prepar- 
ed, with cold water, and put it in the pitcher 
in which cold water was customarily kept in 
the apartment where Britannicus was to take 
his supper. "When the time arrived !Nero 
himself came in and took his place upon a 
couch which was standing in the room, with a 
view of watching the proceedings. Some 
broth was brought in for the prince's supper. 
The attendant whose duty it was, tasted it as 
usual, and then passed it into the prince's 
hand. Britannicus tasted it, and found it 



168 Neko. [A.D. 55. 

Britannicus dies. Agrippina's agitation and distress. 

too hot. It had been purposely made so. 
He gave it back to the attendant to be 
cooled. The attendant took it to the pitcher, 
and cooled it with the poisoned water, and 
then gave it back again to Britannicus with- 
out asking the taster to taste it again. Britan- 
nicus drank the broth. In a few minutes the 
fatal consequences ensued. The unhappy 
victim sank suddenly down in a fainting fit. 
His eyes became fixed, his limbs were par- 
alyzed, his breathing was short and convul- 
sive. The attendants rushed toward him to 
render him assistance, but his life was fast 
ebbing away, and before they could recover 
from the shock which his sudden illness occa- 
sioned them, they found that he had ceased 
to breathe. 

The event produced, of course, great excite- 
ment and commotion throughout the palace. 
Agrippina was immediately summoned, and 
as she stood over the dying child she was 
overwhelmed with terror and distress. ]STero, 
on the other hand, appeared wholly unmoved. 
" It is only one of his epileptic fits," said he. 
" Britannicus has been accustomed to them 
from infancy. He will soon recover." 

As soon, however, as there was no longer 



A.D. 55.] Britannicus. 169 

Effect produced by the poison. Remedy. 

any room to question that Britannicus was 
dead, Nero began immediately to make prep- 
arations for the burial of the body. The 
remorse which, notwithstanding his depravity, 
he could not but feel at having perpetrated 
such a crime, made him impatient to remove 
all traces and memorials of it from his sight ; 
and, besides, he was afraid to wait the usual 
period and then to make arrangements for a 
public funeral, lest the truth in respect to 
the death of Britannicus might be suspected 
by the Romans, and a party be formed to re- 
venge his wrongs. Any tendency of this 
kind which might exist would be greatly 
favored, he knew, by the excitement of a pub- 
lic funeral. He determined, therefore, that 
the body should be immediately buried. 

There was another reason still for this dis- 
patch. It seems that one of the effects of the 
species of poison which Locusta had adminis- 
tered was that the body of the victim was 
turned black by it soon after death. This dis- 
coloration, in fact, began to appear in the face 
of the corpse of Britannicus before the time 
for the interment arrived ; and Nero, in order 
to guard against the exposure which this 
phenomenon threatened, ordered the face to 



170 Neeo. [AD. 55. 

The interment of Britannicus. The storm. 

be painted of the natural color, by means of 
cosmetics, such as the ladies of the court were 
accustomed to use in those days. By doing this 
the countenance of the dead was restored to 
its proper color, and afterward underwent no 
further change. Still the emperor was natu- 
rally impatient to have the body interred. 

The preparations were accordingly made 
that same evening, and in the middle of the 
night the body of Britannicus was buried in 
the Field of Mars, a vast parade-ground in 
the precincts of the city. In addition to the 
darkness of the night, a violent storm arose, 
and the rain fell in torrents while th$ inter- 
ment proceeded. Very few, therefore, of the 
people of the city knew what had occurred 
until the following day. The violence of the 
storm, however, which promoted in one re- 
spect the accomplishment of Nero's designs 
by favoring the secrecy of the interment, in 
another respect operated strongly against him, 
for the face of the corpse became so wet ^ith 
the fallen rain, that the cosmetic was washed 
away and the blackened skin was brought to 
view. The attendants who had the body in 
charge learned thus that the boy had been 
poisoned. 



A.D. 55.] Britannicus. 171 



Nero's proclamation. 



On the morning after the funeral the em- 
peror issued a proclamation announcing the 
death and burial of his brother, and calling 
upon the Roman Senate and the Roman 
people for their sympathy and support in the 
bereavement which he had sustained. 

At the time of his death Britannicus was 
fourteen years old. 



172 Nero. [A.D. 55. 

Situation of Agrippina. Her state of mind. 



Chapter YIIL 
The Fate of Agrippina. 

TTOWEYER it may have been with others, 
XX Agrippina herself was not deceived by 
the false pretenses which Nero offered in ex- 
planation of his brothers death. She under- 
stood the case too well, and the event filled 
her mind with a tumult of conflicting emo- 
tions. Notwithstanding the terrible quarrels 
which had disturbed her intercourse with the 
emperor, he was still her son, — her first-born 
son, — and she loved him as such, even in the 
midst of the resentment and hostility which 
her disappointed ambition from time to time 
awakened in her mind. Her ambition was 
now more bitterly disappointed than ever. 
In the death of Britannicus the last link of 
her power over Nero seemed to be forever 
sundered. The hand by which he had fallen 
was still that of her son, — a son to whom she 
could not but cling with maternal affection, 
while she felt deeply wounded at what she 






A.D. 55.] Fate of Agrippina. 173 

Nero's viows in respect to his mother. 

considered his cruel ingratitude toward her, 
and vexed and maddened at finding herself 
so hopelessly circumvented in all her schemes. 

As for Nero himself, he had no longer any 
hope or expectation of being on good terms 
with his mother again. He saw clearly that 
her schemes and plans were wholly incom- 
patible with his, and that in order to secure 
the prosperous accomplishment of his own 
designs he must now finish the work that he 
had begun, and curtail and restrict his mo- 
ther's influence by every means in his power. 
Other persons he attempted to conciliate. 
He ma.de splendid presents to the leading 
men of Rome, as bribes to prevent their insti- 
tuting inquiries in respect to the death of 
Britannicus. To some he gave landed es- 
tates, to others sums of money, and others 
still he advanced to high offices of civil or 
military command. Those w r hom he most 
feared he removed from Rome, by giving 
them honorable and lucrative appointments in 
distant provinces. 

In the mean time Agrippina herself was 
not idle. As soon as she recovered from the 
first shock which the death of Britannicus had 
occasioned her, she began to think of revenge. 



174 Nero. [A.D. 55. 

Plans and measures adopted by Agrippina. 

Within the limits and restrictions which the 
suspicion and vigilance of Nero imposed upon 
her, she formed a small circle of friends and 
adherents, and sought out, diligently, though 
secretly, all whom she supposed to be disaf- 
fected to the government of IsTero. She at- 
tached herself particularly to Octavia, who, 
being the daughter of Claudius, succeeded 
now, on the death of Britannicus, to whatever 
hereditary rights had been vested in him. 
She collected money, so far as she had power 
to do so, from all the resources which remain- 
ed to her, and she availed herself of every 
opportunity to cultivate the acquaintance, and 
court the favor, of all such officers of the ar- 
my as were accessible to her influence. In a 
Word, she seemed to be meditating some se- 
cret scheme for retrieving her fallen fortunes, 
— and ISTero, who watched all her motions 
with a jealous and suspicious eye, began to 
be alarmed, not knowing to what desperate 
extremes her resentment and ambition might 
urge her. 

Up to this time Agrippina had lived in the 
imperial palace with ISTero, forming, with her 
retinue, a part of his household, and sharing 
of course, in some sense, the official honors 



A.D. 55.] Fate of Agrippina. 175 

Nero establishes his mother as a private lady. 

paid to him. Nero now concluded, however, 
that he would remove her from this position 
and give her a separate establishment of her 
own, — making it correspond in its appoint- 
ments with the secondary and subordinate 
station to which he intended thenceforth to 
confine her. He accordingly assigned to her 
a certain mansion in the city which had for- 
merly been occupied by some branch of the 
imperial family, and removed her to it, with 
all her attendants. He dismissed, however, 
from her service, under various pretexts, such 
officers and adherents as he supposed were 
most devoted to her interests and most dis- 
posed to join with her in plots and conspira- 
cies against him. The places of those whom 
he thus superseded were supplied by men on 
whom he could rely for subserviency to him. 
He diminished too the number of Agrippina's 
attendants and guards ; he withdrew the sen- 
tinels that had been accustomed to guard the 
gates of her apartments, and dismissed a cer- 
tain corps of German soldiers that had hither- 
to served under her command, as a sort of life- 
guard. In a word he removed her from the 
scenes of imperial pomp and splendor in 
which she had been accustomed to move, and 



176 Neeo. [A.D. 55. 

- * - ■ 

Agrippina finds herself forsaken and friendless. 

established her instead in the position of a 
private Roman lady. 

The unhappy Agrippina soon found that 
this change in her position made a great 
change in respect to the degree of considera- 
tion and regard which was bestowed upon her 
by the public. The circle of her adherents 
and friends was gradually diminished. Her 
visitors were few. The emperor himself went 
sometimes to see his mother, but he came al- 
ways attended with a retinue, and after a 
brief and formal interview, he retired as cer- 
emoniously as he came,' — thus giving to his 
visit the character simply of a duty 9f state 
etiquette. In a word, Agrippina foiind her- 
self forsaken and friendless, and her mind 
gradually sank into a condition of hopeless 
despondency, vexation and chagrin. 

Things continued in this state for some time 
until at length one night when Nero had been 
drinking and carousing at a banquet in his 
palace, a well-known courtier named Paris, 
one of the principal of Nero's companions 
and favorites, came into the apartment and 
informed the emperor with a countenance ex- 
pressive of great concern, that he had tidings 
of the most serious moment to communicate 



A.D. 55.] Fate of Agrippina. 177 

A plot discovered. Statement of Paris. 

to him. Nero withdrew from the scene of 
festivity to receive the communication, and 
was informed by Paris, that a discovery had 
been made of a deep-laid and dangerous plot, 
which Agrippina and certain accomplices of 
hers had formed. The object of the conspir- 
ators, as Paris alledged, was to depose Nero, 
and raise a certain descendant of Augustus 
Caesar, named Plautus, to the supreme com- 
mand, in his stead. This revolution being 
effected, Agrippina was to marry the new em- 
peror, and thus be restored to her former 
power. 

The statement which Paris made was very 
full in all its details. The names of the chief 
conspirators were given, and all the plans ex- 
plained. The chief witness on whose author- 
ity the charge was made, was a celebrated 
woman of the court, an intimate acquaint- 
ance and visitor of Agrippina, named Silana. 
Silana and Agrippina had been very warm 
friends, but a terrible quarrel had recently 
broken out between them, in consequence of 
some interference on the part of Agrippina, 
to prevent a marriage, which had been par- 
tially arranged between Silana and a distin- 
guished Koman citizen, from being carried 

M 



178 Nero. [A.D. 55. 

Nero is greatly alarmed. A council called. 

into effect. Silana had been exasperated by 
this ill office, and the revelation which she 
had made had been the result. Whether 
such a conspiracy had really been formed, 
and Silana had been induced to betray the 
secret in consequence of the injury which 
Agrippina had inflicted upon her in prevent- 
ing her marriage, or whether she wholly in- 
vented the story under the impulse of a des- 
perate revenge, was never fully known. The 
historians of the time incline to the latter 
opinion. 

However this may be, Kero was greatly 
alarmed at the communication which Paris 
made to him. He immediately abandoned 
his festivities and carousals, dismissed his 
guests, and called a council of his most confi- 
dential advisers, to consider what was to be 
done. He stated the case to this council, and 
announced it as his determination immedi- 
ately to pronounce sentence of death upon his 
mother and upon Plautus, and to send officers 
at once to execute the decree, as the first step 
to be taken. Burrus, however, strongly dis- 
suaded him from so rash a proceeding, 
" These are only charges," said he, " at pres- 
ent. We have yet no proofs. An informer 



A.D. 55.] Fate of Ageippina. 179 



Burrus defends Agrippina. 



has come to you at dead of night with this 
wild and improbable story, and if we take it 
for granted at once that it is true, and allow 
ourselves to act under the influence of excite- 
ment and alarm, we should afterward regret 
our rashness when the consequences could 
not be retrieved. Besides, Agrippina is your 
mother ; and as it is the right of the humblest 
person in the commonwealth, when accused 
of crime, to be heard in answer to the accusa- 
tion, it would be an atrocious crime to de- 
prive the mother of the emperor of that privi- 
lege. Postpone, therefore, pronouncing judg- 
ment in this case until we can learn the facts 
more certainly. I pledge myself to execute 
sentence of death on Agrippina, if after a fair 
hearing, this charge is proved against her." 

By such arguments and remonstrances as 
these Nero was in some degree appeased, and 
it was determined to postpone taking any de- 
cisive action in the emergency until the morn- 
ing. As soon as it was day, Burrus and 
Seneca, accompanied by several attendants, 
who were to act as witnesses of the interview, 
were dispatched to the house of Agrippina to 
lay the charge before her and to hear what 
she had to say. 



180 Nebo. [A.D. 56. 

Agrippina's indignant answer to the charge. 

Agrippina was at first somewhat astonished 
at being summoned at so early an hour to 
give audience to so formidable a commission ; 
but her proud spirit had become so fierce and 
desperate under the treatment which she had 
received from her son, that she was very 
slightly sensible to fear. She listened, there- 
fore, to the heavy charge which Burrus 
brought against her, undismayed ; and when 
he paused to hear her reply, instead of excus- 
ing and defending herself, and deprecating 
the emperor's displeasure, she commenced 
the most severe and angry invectives against 
her son, for listening for a moment to calum- 
nies against her so wild and improbable. 
That Silana, who was, as she said, a dissolute 
and unprincipled woman, and who, conse- 
quently, could have no idea of the strength 
and the fidelity of maternal affection, should 
think it possible that a mother could form 
plots and conspiracies against an only son, 
was not strange ; but that Nero himself, for 
whom she had made such exertions and in- 
curred such dangers, and to whose interests 
she had surrendered and sacrificed every 
thing that could be dear to the heart of a 
woman — could believe such tales, and actu- 



A.D. 56.] Fate of Agrippina. 181 

Return of the commissioners to Nero. 

ally conceive the design of murdering his 
mother on the faith of them, was not to be 
endured. "Does not he know well," said 
she, in a voice almost inarticulate with ex- 
citement and indignation, "that, if by any 
means, Britannicus, or Plautus, or any other 
man were to be raised to power, my life would 
be immediately forfeited in consequence of 
what I have already done for him ? Can he 
imagine, after the deep and desperate crimes 
which I have committed for his sake, in order 
that I might raise him to his present power, 
that I could seal my own destruction by 
bringing forward any one of his rivals and 
enemies to his place ? Go back and tell him 
this, and say, moreover, that I demand an 
audience of him. I am his mother; and I 
have a right to expect that he shall see me 
himself, and hear what I have to say." 

The commissioners whom Nero had sent 
with the accusations, were somewhat aston- 
ished at receiving these angry denunciations 
and invectives in reply, instead of the meek 
and faltering defense which they had ex- 
pected. They were overawed, too, by the 
lofty and passionate energy with which Agrip- 
pina had spoken. They answered her with 



182 Nero. [A.D.56. 

Nero is convinced of his mother's innocence. 

soothing and conciliatory words, and then 
went back to ]STero, and reported the result of 
their interview. 

Nero consented to see his mother. In his 
presence she assumed the same tone of proud 
and injured innocence, that had character- 
ized her interview with the messengers. She 
scorned to enter into any vindication of her- 
self ; but assumed that she was innocent, and 
demanded that her accusers should be pun- 
ished as persons guilty of the most atrocious 
calumny. JSTero was convinced of her inno- 
cence, and yielded to her demands. Silana 
and two others of her accusers, were banished 
from Rome. Another still was punished with 
death. 

Thus a sort of temporary and imperfect 
peace was once more established between 
E*ero and his mother. 

This state of things continued for about the 
space of three years. During this time, the 
public affairs of the empire, as conducted by 
the ministers of state and the military gene- 
rals, to whom ISTero intrusted them, went on 
with tolerable prosperity and success, while 
in every thing that related to personal conduct 
and character, the condition of the emperor 



AJ). 59.] Fate of Agrippina. 183 

Nero's course of life. Riots in the streets. 

was becoming every day more and more de- 
plorable. He spent his days in sloth and 
sensual stupor, and his nights in the wildest 
riot and debauchery. He used to disguise 
himself as a slave, and sally forth at mid- 
night with a party of his companions simi- 
larly attired, into the streets of the city, dis- 
turbing the night with riot and noise. Some- 
times they would go out at an earlier hour, — 
while the people were in the streets and the 
shops were open, — and amuse themselves with 
seizing the goods and merchandise that they 
found offered for sale, and assaulting all that 
came in their way. In these frolics, the em- 
peror and his party were met sometimes by 
other parties ; and in the brawls which ensued 
Eero was frequently handled very roughly — 
his opponents not knowing who he was. At 
one time he was knocked down and very seri- 
ously wounded ; and in consequence of this 
adventure, his face was for a long time dis- 
figured with a scar. 

Although in these orgies !Nero went gene- 
rally in disguise, yet as he and his companions 
were accustomed afterward to boast of their 
exploits, it soon became generally known to 
the people of the city that their young emperor 



184 Nero. [A.D. 59. 



Agrippina lives in seclusion. 



was in the habit of mingling in these midnight 
brawls. Of coarse every wild and dissolute 
young man in Rome was fired with an ambi- 
tion to imitate the example set him by so 
exalted an authority. Midnight riots became 
the fashion. As the parties grew larger, the 
brawls which occurred in the streets became 
more and more serious, until at last Nero was 
accustomed to take with him a gang of sol- 
diers and gladiators in disguise, who were in- 
structed to follow him within call, so as to be 
ready to come up instantly to his aid when- 
ever he should require their assistance. 

Year after year passed away in this man- 
ner, Nero abandoning himself all the time 
to the grossest sensual pleasures, and growing 
more and more reckless and desperate every 
day. His mother lived during this period in 
comparative seclusion. She attempted to ex- 
ercise some little restraint over her son, but 
without success. She attached herself strongly 
to Octavia, the wife of Nero, and would have 
defended her, if she could, from the injuries 
and wrongs which the conduct of Nero as a 
husband heaped upon her. 

At length the young emperor, in following 
his round of vicious indulgence, formed an 



]A 



A.D. 59.] Fate of Agrippina. 185 

Poppaea. Her influence over Nero. 

intimacy with a certain lady of the court 
named Poppsea, the wife of Otho, one of 
Nero's companions in pleasure. Nero sent 
Otho away on some distant appointment, in 
order that he might enjoy the society of 
Poppsea without restraint. At length Poppaea 
gained so great an ascendency over the mind, 
of the emjDeror as to seduce him entirely away 
from his duty to his wife, and she proposed 
that they should both be divorced and then 
marry one another. Nero was inclined to ac- 
cede to this proposal, but Agrippina strongly 
ojDposed it. For a time Nero hesitated be- 
tween the influence of Agrippina and the 
sentiment of duty, on the one hand, and the 
enticements of -Poppsea on the other. In ad- 
dition to the influence of her blandishments 
and smiles, she attempted to act upon Nero's 
boyish pride by taunting him with what she 
^called his degrading and unmanly subjection 
to his mother. How long, she asked, was he 
to remain like a child under maternal tute- 
lage ? She wondered how he could endure 
so ignoble a bondage. He was in name and 
position, she said, a mighty monarch, reign- 
ing absolutely over half the world, — but in 
actual fact he was a mere nursery boy, who 



186 Nero. [A.D. 59. 

Her taunts and reproaches. Effect of them on Nero's mind. 

could do nothing without his mother's leave. 
She was ashamed, she said, to see him in 
so humiliating a condition ; and unless he 
would take some vigorous measures to free 
himself from his chains, she declared that she 
would leave him forever, and go with her 
husband to some distant quarter of the world 
where she could no longer be a witness of his 
disgrace. 

The effect of these taunts upon the mind of 
Nero was very much heightened by the proud 
and imperious spirit which his mother mani- 
fested toward him, and which seemed to be- 
come more and more stern and severe, through 
the growing desperation which the conduct 
of her son and her own hopeless condition 
seemed to awaken in her mind. The quarrel, 
in a word, between the emperor and his 
mother grew more and more inveterate and 
hopeless every day. At length he shunned 
her entirely, and finally, every remaining 
spark of filial duty having become extin- 
guished, he began to meditate some secret 
plan of removing her out of his way. 

He revolved various projects for accom- 
plishing this purpose, in his mind. He did 
not dare to employ open violence, as he had 



A.D. 60.] Fate of Agkippina. 187 

Nero begins to desire the death of his mother. 

no charge against his mother to justify a 
criminal sentence against her ; and he dreaded 
the effect upon the public mind which would 
be produced by the spectacle of so unnatural 
a deed as the execution of a mother by com- 
mand of her son. He could not trust to poi- 
son. Agrippina was perfectly familiar with 
every thing relating to the poisoning art, and 
would doubtless be fully on her guard against 
any attempt of that kind that he might make. 
Besides, he supposed, that by means of cer- 
tain antidotes which she was accustomed to 
use, her system was permanently fortified 
against the action of every species of poison. 

While ISTero was revolving these things in 
his mind, the occasion occurred for a great 
naval celebration at Baias, a beautiful bay 
south of Borne, near what is now the bay of 
Naples. Baise was celebrated in ancient 
times, as it is in fact now, for the beauty of 
its situation, and it was a place of great resort 
for the Boman nobility. There was a small, 
but well-built town at the head of the bay, 
and the hills and valleys in the vicinity, as 
well as every headland and promontory along 
the shore, were ornamented with villas and 
country-seats, which were occupied as summer 



188 Nero. [A.D. 60. 

Anicetus. Great naval celobration at Miseiram. 

residences by tlie "wealthy people of the city. 
Baise was also a great naval station, and there 
was at this time a fleet stationed there,' — or 
rather at the promontory of Misenum, a few 
miles beyond, — under the command of one of 
Nero's confidential servants, named Anicetus. 
The naval celebration was to take place in 
connection with this fleet. It was an annual 
festival, and was to continue five days. 

Anicetus had been a personal attendant 
upon Nero in his infancy, and had lived al- 
ways in habits of great intimacy with him. 
For some reason or other, too, he was a great 
enemy to Agrippina, having been always ac- 
customed, when Nero was a child, to take his 
part in the little contests which had arisen, 
from time to time, between him and his 
mother. Anicetus was of course prepared to 
sympathize very readily with Nero in the 
hatred which he now cherished toward Agrip- 
pina, and when he learned that Nero was de- 
sirous of devising some means of accomplish- 
ing her death, he formed a plan which he 
said would effect the purpose very safely. 
He proposed to invite Agrippina to Baise, and 
then, in the course of the ceremonies and 
manoeuvers connected with the naval spec- 



A.D. 60.] Fate of Agrippina. 189 

Proposal of Anicetus. Nero is pleased with it. 

tacle, to take her out upon the bay in a barge 
or galley. He would have the barge so con- 
structed, he said, that it should go to pieces 
at sea, making arrangements beforehand for 
saving the lives of the others, but leaving 
Agrippina to be drowned. 

Nero was greatly pleased with this device, 
and determined at once to adopt the plan. In 
order to open the way for carrying it into ef- 
fect, he pretended, when the time for the fes- 
tival drew nigh, that he desired to be recon- 
ciled to his mother, and that he was ready 
now to fall in with her wishes and plans. He 
begged her to forget all his past unkinclness 
to her, and assuring her that his feelings to- 
ward her were now wholly changed, he lav- 
ished upon her expressions of the tenderest 
regard. A mother is always very easily de- 
ceived by such protestations on the part of a 
wayward son, and Agrippina believed all that 
Nero said to her. In a word, the reconciliation 
seemed to be complete. 

At length, when the time for the naval fes- 
tival drew nigh, Nero, who was then at Bake, 
sent an invitation to his mother to come and 
join him in witnessing the spectacle. Agrip- 
pina readily consented to accept the in vita 



190 Neeo. [A.D. 60. 

Arrangements for carrying it into effect. 

tion. She was at this time at Antium, the 
place, it will be recollected, where ISTero was 
born. She accordingly set sail from this place 
in her own galley, and proceeded to the 
southward. She landed at one of the villas 
in the neighborhood of Baise. Nero was ready 
upon the shore to meet her. He received her 
with every demonstration of respect and af- 
fection. He had provided quarters for her at 
Bate, and there was a splendid barge ready 
to convey her thither ; the plan being that 
she should embark on board this barge, and 
leave her own galley, — that is the one by 
which she had come in from sea,—- at anchor 
at the villa where she landed. The barge in 
which Agrippina was thus invited to embark, 
was the treacherous trap that Anicetus had 
contrived for her destruction. It was, how- 
ever, to all appearance, a very splendid ves- 
sel, being very richly and beautifully deco- 
rated, as if expressly intended to do honor to 
the distinguished passenger whom it was de- 
signed to convey. 

Agrippina, however, did not seem inclined 
to go in the barge. She preferred proceeding 
to Bate by land. Perhaps, notwithstanding 
Nero ? s apparent friendliness, she felt still 



A.D. 60.] Fate of Ageippina. 191 



Agrippina goes to Baiae. 



some misgivings, and was afraid to trust her- 
self entirely to his power, — or perhaps she 
preferred to finish her journey by land only 
because, in making the passage from Antium, 
she had become tired of the sea. However 
this may have been, Nero acquiesced at once 
in her decision, and provided a sort of sedan 
for conveying her to Baise by land. In this 
sedan she was carried accordingly, by bearers, 
to Baiae, and there lodged in the apartments 
provided for her. 

No favorable opportunity occurred for 
taking Agrippina out upon the water until 
the time arrived for her return to Antium. 
During the time of her stay at Baiee, Nero 
devoted himself to her with the most assid- 
uous attention. He prepared magnificent 
banquets for her, and entertained her with a 
great variety of amusements and diversions. 
In his conversation he sometimes addressed 
her with a familiar playfulness and gayety, 
and at other times he sought occasions to dis- 
course with her seriously on public affairs, in 
a private and confidential manner. Agrip- 
pina was completely deceived by these indi- 
cations, and her heart was filled with pride 



192 Nero. [A.D.60. 

Preparations for destroying Agrippina. 

and joy at the thought that she had regained 
the affection and confidence of her son. 

Nero and Anicetus determined finally to 
put their plan into execution by inducing 
Agrippina to embark on board their barge in 
returning to Antium, when the time should 
arrive, instead of going back in her own ves- 
sel. Their other attempts to induce her to go 
out upon the water had failed, and this was 
the only opportunity that now remained. It 
was desirable that this embarkation should 
take place in the night, as the deed which 
they were contemplating could be more effec- 
tually accomplished under the cover of the 
darkness. Accordingly, on the afternoon of 
the day on which Agrippina was to return, 
Nero prepared a banquet for her, and he pro- 
tracted the festivities and entertainments 
which attended it until late in the evening, so 
that it was wholly dark before his mother 
could take her leave. Anicetus then contriv- 
ed to have one of the vessels of his fleet 
run against the galley in which Agrippina 
had come from Antium, as it lay at anchor 
near the shore at the place where she had 
landed. The galley was broken down and 
disabled by the collision. Anicetus came to 



A.D. 60.] Fate of Agrippina. 193 

Nero bids his mother an affectionate farewell. 

Agrippina to report the accident, with a coun- 
tenance expressive of much concern ; but 
added that the barge which the emperor had 
prepared for her was at her service, and pro- 
posed to substitute that in the place of the 
one which had been injured. There seemed 
to be no other alternative, and Agrippina, 
after taking a very affectionate leave of her 
son, went gayly, and wholly unconscious of 
danger, on board the beautiful but treacher- 
ous vessel. 

It was observed that Nero exhibited an ex- 
treme degree of tender regard for his mother 
in bidding her farewell on this occasion. He 
hung upon her neck a long time, and kissed 
her again and again, detaining her by these 
endearments on the shore, as if reluctant to 
let her go. After Agrippina's death this 
scene was remembered by those who witness- 
ed it, but in reflecting upon it they could not 
decide whether these tokens of affection were 
all assumed, as belonging to the part which 
he was so hypocritically acting, or whether he 
really felt at the last moment some filial re- 
lentings, which led him to detain his mother 
for a time on the brink of the pit which he 
had been preparing for her destruction. From 



194 Nero. [A.D. 60. 

Agrippina and her attendant on board the barge. 

all, however, that we now know in respect to 
the personal character which Nero had formed 
at this period, it is probable that the former 
is the correct supposition. 

The plot, dextrous as the contrivance of it 
had been, was not destined to succeed. The 
vessel moved gently from the shore, rowed by 
the mariners. It was a clear starlight night. 
The sea was smooth, and the air was calm. 
Agrippina took her place upon a couch which 
had been arranged for her, under a sort of 
canopy or awning, the frame-work of which, 
above, had been secretly loaded with lead. 
She was attended here by one of her ladies 
named Aceronia Polla, who lay at her mis- 
tress's feet, and entertained her with conver- 
sation as the boat glided along on its way. 
They talked of Nero — of the kind attentions 
which he had been paying to Agrippina, and 
of the various advantages which were to fol- 
low from the reconciliation which had been 
so happily effected. In this manner the hours 
passed away, and the barge went on until it 
reached the place which had been determined 
upon for breaking it down and casting Agrip- 
pina into the sea. The spot which had been 
chosen was so near the land as to allow of the 



A.D. 60.] Fate of Ageippina. 195 

The result of the attempt. Narrow escape of Agrippina. 

escape of the mariners by swimming, but yet 
remote enough, as was supposed, to make 
Agrippina's destruction sure. A few of the 
mariners were in the secret, and were in some 
degree prepared for what was to come. Others 
knew nothing, and were expected to save 
themselves as they best could, when they 
should find themselves cast into the sea. 

At a given signal the fastenings of the can- 
opy were loosened, and the loaded struc- 
ture came down suddenly with a heavy crash, 
carrying away with it other parts of the vessel. 
One man was crushed under the weight of the 
falling ruins, and instantly killed. Agrippina 
and the lady in waiting upon her were saved 
by the posts of the bed or couch on which 
Agrippina was reclining, which happened to 
be in such a position that they held up the im- 
pending mass sufficiently to allow the ladies 
to creep out from beneath it. The breaking 
down, too, of the deck and bulwarks of the 
barge was less extensive than had been in- 
tended, so that Agrippina not only escaped 
being crushed by the ruins but she also saved 
herself at first from being thrown into the sea. 
The men then who were in the secret of the 
plot immediately raised a great cry and con- 



196 Nero. [A.D. 60. 



Agrippina and Aceronia in the sea. 



fusion, and attempted to upset the barge by 
climbing up upon one side of it — while the 
others, who did not understand the case, did 
all they could to save it. In the mean time 
the noise of the outcries reached the shore, 
and fishermen's boats began to put off with a 
view of coming to the rescue of the distressed 
vessel. Before they arrived, however, the 
boat had been overturned, Agrippina and 
Aceronia had been thrown into the sea, and 
the men who were in the secret of the plot, 
taking advantage of the darkness and con- 
fusion, were endeavoring to seal the fate of 
their victims, by beating them down with 
poles and oars as they struggled in the water, 
These efforts succeeded in the case of Ace- 
ronia, for she uttered loud and continual out- 
cries in her terror, and thus drew upon her- 
self the blows of the assassins. Agrippina, 
on the other hand, had the presence of mind 
to keep silence. She received one heavy blow 
upon the shoulder, which inflicted a serious 
wound. In other respects she escaped unin- 
jured, and succeeded, partly through the 
buoyancy of her dress, and partly by the ef- 
forts that she made to swim, in keeping her- 
self afloat until she was taken up by the fish- 



b, '1 hi f 










1 



m. 



m 



'i ; ! 

II! '. 






■ 

,!l! lllllsiliSSill 



Hi 



/ 



A.D. 60.] Fate of Ageippina. 199 

Agrippina escapes. Her message to Nero. 

erinen and conveyed to the shore. She was 
taken to a villa belonging to her, which was 
situated not far from the place where the dis- 
aster had occurred. 

As soon as Agrippina had recovered a little 
from the terror and excitement of this scene, 
and had time to reflect upon the circum- 
stances of it, she was convinced that what had 
occurred was no accident, but the result of a 
deep-laid design to destroy her life. She, 
however, thought it most prudent to dissem- 
ble her opinion for a time. As soon therefore 
as she had safely reached her villa, and her 
wound had been dressed, she dispatched a 
messenger to Baise to inform ISTero of what 
had occurred. The vessel in which she had 
embarked had been wrecked at sea, she said, 
and she had narrowly escaped destruction. 
She had received a severe hurt, by some fall- 
ing spar, but had at length safely reached her 
home at Antium. She begged, however, that 
her son would not come to see her, as what 
she needed most was repose. She had sent 
the messenger, she said, to inform him of 
what had occurred only that he might rejoice 
with her in the signal interposition of divine 



200 Nero. [A.D. 60. 

Nero's alarm on hearing of his mother's escape. 

providence by which she had been rescued 
from so imminent a danger. 

In the mean time ISTero was waiting impa- 
tiently and anxiously in his palace at Baise, 
for the arrival of a messenger from Anicetus 
to inform him that his plot had been success- 
ful, and that his mother was drowned. Instead 
of this a rumor of her escape reached him 
some time before Agrippina's messenger ar- 
rived, and threw him into consternation. 
People came from the coast and informed 
him that the barge in which his mother had 
sailed had been wrecked, and that Agrippina 
had narrowly escaped with her life. The par- 
ticulars were not fully given to him, but he 
presumed that Agrippina must have learned 
that the occurrence was the result of a delib- 
erate attempt to destroy her, and he was con- 
sequently very much alarmed. He dreaded 
the desperate spirit of resentment and revenge 
which he presumed had been aroused in his 
mother's mind. 

He forthwith sent for Burrus and Seneca, 
and revealed to them all the circumstances 
of the case. He made the most bitter accu- 
sations against his mother, in justification of 
his attempt to destroy her. He had long been 



A.D. 60.] Fate of Agrippina. 201 

Consultation with Seneca and Burrus. 

convinced, he said, that there could be no 
peace or safety for him as long as she lived, 
and now, at all events, since he had under- 
taken the work of destroying her and made 
the attempt, no alternative was left to him but 
to go on and finish what he had begun. "She 
must die now," said he, " or she will most as- 
suredly contrive some means to destroy me." 

Seneca and Burrus were silent. They 
knew not what to say. They saw very clearly 
that a crisis had arrived, the end of which 
would be, that one or the other must perish, 
and consequently the only question for them 
to decide was, whether the victim should be 
the mother or the son. At length, after a 
long and solemn pause, Seneca looked to 
Burrus, and inquired whether the soldiers 
under his command could be relied upon 
to execute death upon Agrippina. Burrus 
shook his head. The soldiers, he said, felt 
such a veneration for the family of Germani- 
cus, which was the family from which Agrip- 
pina had sprung, that they would perform no 
such bloody work upon any representative of 
it. "Besides," said he, "Anicetus has un- 
dertaken this duty. It devolves on him to 
finish what he has begun." 



202 Nero. [A.D. 60. 

Anicetus undertakes to finish his work. 

Anicetus readily undertook the task. He 
had, in fact, a personal interest in it; for, 
after what had passed, he knew well that 
there could be no safety for him while Agrip- 
pina lived. Nero seemed overjoyed at find- 
ing Anicetus so ready to meet his wishes. 
"Be prompt," said he, " in doing what you 
have to do. Take with you whom you please 
to assist you. If you accomplish the work, I 
shall consider that I owe my empire to your 
fidelity." 

Anicetus, having thus received his commis- 
sion, ordered a small detachment from the 
fleet to accompany him, and proceeded to the 
villa where Agrippina had taken refuge. He 
found a crowd of country people assembled 
around the gates of the villa. They had 
been drawn thither by the tidings of the dis- 
aster which had happened to Agrippina, cu- 
rious to learn all the particulars of the occur- 
rence, or desirous, perhaps, to congratulate 
Agrippina on her escape. When these peas- 
antry saw the armed band of Anicetus ap- 
proaching, they know not what it meant, 
but were greatly alarmed, and fled in all 
directions. 

The guards at the gates of Agrippina's 



A.D. 60.] Fate of Ageippina. 203 



Anicetus goes to Agrippina's villa. 



villa made some resistance to the entrance of 
the soldiers, but they were soon knocked 
down and overpowered ; the gates were burst 
open, and Anicetus entered at the head of 
his party of marines. Agrippina, who was 
upon her bed in an inner chamber at the time, 
heard the noise and tumult, and was greatly 
alarmed. A number of friends who were 
with her, hearing the footsteps of the armed 
men on the stairs, fled from the chamber in 
dismay, by a private door, leaving Agrippina 
alone with her maid. The maid, after a mo- 
ment's pause, fled too, Agrippina saying to 
her as she disappeared, " Are you, too, going 
to forsake me?" At the same moment, Ani- 
cetus forced open the door of entrance, and 
came in accompanied by two of his officers. 
The three armed men, with an expression of 
fierce and relentless determination upon their 
countenances, advanced to Agrippina's bed- 
side. 

Agrippina was greatly terrified, but she 
preserved some degree of outward composure, 
and raising herself in her bed, she looked 
steadily upon her assassins. 

u Do you come from my son?" said she. 

They did not answer. 



204 Neeo. [A.D.60. 

Conversation. Agrippina is murdered. 

" If you came to inquire how I am," said 
she, u tell him that I am better, and shall 
soon be entirely well. I can not believe that 
he can possibly have sent you to do me any 
violence or harm." 

At this instant one of the assassins struck 
at the wretched mother with his club. The 
arm, however, of the most hardened and un- 
relenting monster, usually falters somewhat 
at the beginning, in doing such work as this, 
and the blow gave Agrippina only an incon- 
siderable wound. She saw at once, however, 
that all was lost — that the bitter moment ot 
death had come, — but instead of yielding to 
the emotions of terror and despair which 
might have been expected to overwhelm the 
heart of a woman in such a scene, her fierce 
and indomitable spirit aroused itself to new 
life and vigor in the terrible emergency. 
As the assassins approached her with their 
swords brandished in the air, preparing to 
strike her, she threw the bed-clothes off, so 
as to uncover her person, and called upon her 
murderers to strike her in the womb. " It is 
there," said she, "that the stab should be 
given when a mother is to be murdered by 
her son." She was instantly thrust through 



A.D. 60.] Fate of Ageippina. 205 

Nero is overwhelmed with remorse and horror. 

with a multitude of wounds in every part of 
her body, and died weltering in the blood 
that flowed out upon the couch on which she 
lay. 

Anicetus and his comrades, when the deed 
was done, gazed for a moment on the lifeless 
body, and then gathering together again the 
soldiers that they had left at the gates, they 
went back to Baise with the tidings. The first 
emotion which Nero experienced, on hearing 
that all was over, was that of relief. He soon 
found, however, that monster as he was, his 
conscience was not yet so stupefied, that he 
could perpetrate such a deed as this without 
bringing out her scourge. As soon as he be- 
gan to reflect upon what he had done, his 
soul was overwhelmed with remorse and 
horror. He passed the remainder of the night 
in dreadful agony, sometimes sitting silent 
and motionless — gazing into vacancy, as if 
his faculties were bewildered and lost, and 
then suddenly starting up, amazed and trem- 
bling, and staring wildly about, as if seized 
with a sudden frenzy. His wild and ghastly 
looks, his convulsive gesticulations, and his 
incoherent ravings and groans, indicated the 
horror that he endured, and were so frightful 



206 Nero. [A.D. 60. 

He becomes more calm. The dead body. 

that his officers and attendants shrunk away 
from his presence, and knew not what to do. 

At length they sent in one after another to 
attempt to calm and console him. Their ef- 
forts, however, were attended with little suc- 
cess. When the morning came, it brought 
with it some degree of composure ; but the 
dreadful burden of guilt which pressed upon 
Nero's mind made him still unutterably 
wretched. He said that he could not endure 
any longer to remain on the spot, as every 
thing that he saw, the villas, the ships, the 
sea, the shore, and all the other objects around 
him, were so associated in his mind with the 
thought of his mother, and with the remem- 
brance of his dreadful crime, that he could 
not endure them. 

In the mean time, as soon as the servants 
and attendants at Agrippina's villa found 
that Anicetus and his troop had gone, they 
returned to the chamber of their mistress and 
gazed upon the spectacle which awaited them 
there, with inexpressible horror. Anicetus 
had left some of his men behind to attend to 
the disposal of the body, as it was important 
that it should be removed from sight without 
delay, since it might be expected that all 



A.D. 60.] Fate op Ageippina. 207 

Burning of the body of Agrippina. 

who should look upon it would be excited to a 
high pitch of indignation against the perpe- 
trators of such a crime. The countenance, in 
the condition of repose which it assumed 
after death, appeared extremely beautiful, 
and seemed to address a mute but touching 
appeal to the commiseration of every be- 
holder. It was necessary, therefore, to hurry 
it away. Besides, the soldiers themselves 
were impatient. They wished to get through 
with their horrid work and be gone. 

They accordingly built a funeral pile in the 
garden of the villa, — using such materials for 
the purpose as came most readily to hand — 
and then took up the body of Agrippina on 
the bed upon which it lay, and placed all to- 
gether upon the pile. The fires were lighted. 
The soldiers watched by the side of "it until 
the pile was nearly consumed, and then went 
away, leaving the heart-broken domestics of 
Agrippina around the smoldering embers. 



208 ISTero. ' [A.D. 62. 

The atrocity of Nero's crime in murdering Agrippina. 



Chapter IX. 
Extreme Depravity. 

nHHERE was nothing in the attendant cir- 
-*- cumstances that were connected with the 
act of Nero in murdering his mother, which 
could palliate or extenuate the deed in the 
slightest degree. It was not an act of self- 
defense. Agrippina was not doing him, or 
intending to do him any injury. It was not 
an act of hasty violence, prompted by sudden 
passion. It was not required by any political 
necessity as a means for accomplishing some 
great and desirable public end. It was a cool, 
deliberate, and well-considered crime, per- 
formed solely for the purpose of removing 
from the path of the perpetrator of it an ob- 
stacle to the commission of another crime. 
Nero murdered his mother in cool blood, sim- 
ply because she was in the way of his plans 
for divorcing his innocent wife, and marrying 
adulterously another woman. 

For some time after the commission of this 



A.D. 62.] F reme Depravity. 209 

Nero's mes<- senate. Action of the senate. 



gi- .ne, the miud of Nero was haunted 

. eadful fears, and he suffered continually, 
oy day and by night, all the pangs of remorse 
and horror. He did not dare to return to 
Rome, not knowing to what height the popu- 
lar indignation, that would be naturally ex- 
cited by so atrocious a deed, might rise ; or 
what might be the consequences to him if he 
were to appear in the city. He accordingly 
remained for a time on the coast at Neapolis, 
the town to which he had retired from Baige. 
From this place he sent various communica- 
tions to the Roman Senate, explaining and. 
justifying what he called the execution of his 
mother. He pretended that he had found her 
guilty of treasonable conspiracies against him 
and against the state, and that her death had 
been imperiously demanded, as the only 
means of securing the public safety. The 
senators hated Nero and abhorred his crimes ; 
but they were overawed by the terrible power 
which he exercised over them through the 
army, which they knew was entirely subser- 
vient to his will, and by their dread of his 
ruthless and desperate character. They pass- 
ed resolves approving of what he had done. 
His officers and favorites at Rome sent him 

O 



210 Nero. [A J). 62. 

Nero divorces Oetavia and marries Poppaea, 

word that the memory of Agrippina was ab- 
horred at the capital, and that in destroying 
her, he was considered as having rendered a 
great service to the state. These representa- 
tions in some measure reassured his mind, and 
at length he returned to the city. 

In due time he divorced Oetavia, and mar- 
ried Poppsea. Oetavia, however, still remain- 
ed at Rome, residing in apartments assigned 
her in one of the imperial palaces. Her high 
birth and distinguished position, and, more 
than all, the sympathy that was felt for her 
in her misfortunes, made her an object of 
great attention. The people put garlands 
upon her statues in the public places in the 
city, and pulled down those which were placed 
at Nero's command upon those of Poppsea. 
These and other indications of the popular 
feeling, inflamed Poppsea's hatred and jeal- 
ousy to such a degree, that she suborned one 
of Octavia's domestics to accuse her mistress 
of an ignominious crime. When thus accused, 
other women in Octavia's service w r ere put to 
the rack to compel them to testify against her. 
They, however, persevered, in the midst of 
their tortures, in asserting her innocence. 
Poppsea, nevertheless, insisted that she should 



A.D. 62 "* ^me Depravity. 211 



Octo^ -.ome. Anicetus. 
— 

be mined, and at last, by way of corn- 

pro, : : cing the case, ]STero consented to banish 
1 ^r from the city. 

he was sent to a villa on the sea-coast, in 
the neighborhood of the place where Anicetus 
was stationed with his fleet. But Poppsea 
would not allow her to live in peace even as 
an exile. She soon brought a charge against 
her of having formed a conspiracy against the 
government of Nero, and of having corrupted 
Anicetus, with a view of obtaining the co- 
operation of the fleet in the execution of trea- 
sonable designs. Anicetus himself testified 
to the truth of this charge. He said that Oc- 
tavia had formed such a plan, and that she 
had given herself up, in person, wholly to 
him, in order to induce him to join in it. Oc- 
tavia was accordingly condemned to die. 

Notwithstanding the testimony of Anicetus, 
Octavia was not at the time generally believed 
to be guilty of the charge on which she was 
condemned. It was supposed that Anicetus 
was induced, by promises and bribes from 
Nero and Poppaea, to fabricate the story, in 
order that they might have a pretext for put- 
ting Octavia to death. However this may be, 
the unhappy princess was condemned, and the 



212 Nero. [A.D. 62. 

Octavia's unhappy destiny. Charges against her. 

sentence pronounced upon her was, that she 
must die. 

The life of Octavia, lofty as her position was 
in respect to earthly grandeur, had been one 
of uninterrupted suffering and sorrow. She 
had been married to Nero when a mere child, 
and during the whole period of her connec- 
tion with her husband he had treated her with 
continual unkindness and neglect. She had 
at length been cruelly divorced from him, and 
banished from her native city on charges of 
the most ignominious nature, though wholly 
false — and before this last accusation was 
made against her there seemed to be nothing 
before her but the prospect of spending the 
remainder of her days in a miserable and 
hopeless exile. Still she clung to life, and 
when the messengers of Nero came to tell her 
that she must die, she was overwhelmed with 
agitation and terror. 

She begged and implored them with tears 
and agony, to spare her life. She would 
never, she said, give the emperor any trouble, 
or interfere in any way with any of his plans. 
She gave up willingly all claims to being his 
wife, and would always consider herself as 
only his sister. She would live in retirement 



A.D. P ^ :e Depravity. 213 



Extreme depravity. 

in any place where Nero might 
.er abode, and would never occasion 
tne slightest uneasiness whatever. The 
executioners cut short these entreaties by 
seizing the unhappy princess in the midst of 
them, binding her limbs with thongs, and 
opening her veins. She fainted, however, 
under this treatment, and when the veins were 
opened the wretched victim lay passive and 
insensible in the hands of her executioners, 
and the blood would not flow. So they car- 
ried her to a steam-bath which happened to 
be in readiness near at hand, and shutting 
her up in it, left her to be suffocated by the 
vapor. 

Thus the great crowning crime of Nero's 
life, — for the murder of Agrippina, the adul- 
terous marriage with Poppsea, and the subse- 
quent murder of Octavia, are to be regarded 
as constituting one single though complicated 
crime, — was consummate and complete. It 
was a crime of the highest possible atrocity. 
To open the way to an adulterous marriage 
by the deliberate and cruel murder of a mo- 
ther, and then to seal and secure it by mur- 
dering an innocent wife, — blackening her 
memory at the same time with an ignominy 



214 Nero. [A.D. 62. 

Nero recovers from his remorse. His various crimes. 

wholly undeserved, constitute a crime which 
for unnatural and monstrous enormity must 
be considered as standing at the head of all 
that human depravity has ever achieved. 

ISTero gradually recovered from the remorse 
and horror with which the commission of 
these atrocities at first overwhelmed him; 
and in order to hasten his relief he plunged 
recklessly into every species of riot and ex- 
cess, and in the end hardened himself so 
completely in crime, that during the remain- 
der of his life he perpetrated the most abomi- 
nable deeds without any apparent compunc- 
tion whatever. He killed Poppaea herself at 
last with a kick, which he gave her in a fit of 
passion at a time when circumstances were 
such with her that the violence brought on a 
premature and unnatural sickness. He after- 
ward ordered her son to be drowned in the 
sea, by his slaves, when he was a fishing, be- 
cause he understood that the boy, in playing 
with the other children, often acted the part 
of an emperor. His general Burrus he poi- 
soned. He sent him the poison under pre- 
tense that it was a medical remedy for a 
swelling of the throat under which Burrus 
was suffering. Burrus drank the draught 



A.D. 62.] Extreme Depravity. 215 

Public affairs Defected. His performances on the stage. 



under that impression and died. He de- 
stroyed by similar means in the course of his 
life great numbers of his relatives and officers 
of state, so that there was scarcely a person 
who was brought into any degree of intimate 
connection with him that did not sooner or 
later come to a violent end. 

During his whole reign Nero neglected the 
public affairs of the empire almost altogether, 
— apparently regarding the vast power, and 
the immense resources that were at his com- 
mand, as only means for the more complete 
gratification of his own personal propensities 
and passions. The only ambition which ever 
appeared to animate him was a desire for 
fame as a singer and actor on the stage. 

At the time when he commenced his career 
it was considered wholly beneath the dignity 
of any Roman of rank to appear in any pub- 
lic performance of that nature ; but Nero, 
having conceived in his youth a high idea of 
his merit as a singer, devoted himself with 
great assiduity to the cultivation of his voice, 
and, as he was encouraged in what he did by 
the flatterers that of course were always 
around him, his interest in the musical art 
became at length an extravagant passion. He 



216 Nero. "\ 62. 



Musical training. 



submitted with the greater 
rigorous training customary in those tin 
for the development and improvement of the 
voice ; such as lying for long periods up. 
his back, with a weight of lead upon his 
breast, in order to force the muscles of the 
chest to extraordinary exertion, for the pur- 
pose of strengthening them — and taking medi- 
cines of various kinds to clear the voice and 
reduce the system. He was so much pleased 
with the success of these efforts, that he be- 
gan to feel a great desire to perform in public 
upon the stage. He accordingly began to 
make arrangements for doing this. He first 
appeared in private exhibitions, in the impe- 
rial palaces and gardens, where only the 
nobility of Rome and invited guests were 
present. He, however, gradually extended 
his audiences, and at length came out upon 
the public stage, — first, however, in order to 
prepare the public mind for what they would 
have otherwise considered a great degradation, 
inducing the sons of some of the principal 
nobility to come forward in similar entertain- 
ments. He was so pleased with the success 
which he imagined that he met with in this 
career, that he devoted a large part of his 



A.D. 62. 1 "xteeme Depeavity. 217 



His * °. Rules and regulations at the theater. 

ug his whole life to such perform- 
gg&urse, his love of applause in his 
[ career, increased much too fast to 
satisfied with the natural and ordinary 
means of gratifying it, and he accordingly 
made arrangements, most absurdly, to create 
for his performances a fictitious and counter- 
feit celebrity. At one time he had a corps 
of five thousand men under pay to applaud 
him, in the immense circuses and amphithea- 
ters where he performed. These men were 
regularly trained to the work of applauding, 
as if it were an art to be acquired by study 
and instruction. It was an art, in fact, as 
they practiced it, — different modes of ap- 
plause being designated for different species 
of merit, and the utmost precision being re- 
quired on the part of the performers, in the 
concert of their action, and in their obedience 
to the signals. He used also to require on 
the days when he was to perform, that the 
doors of the theater should be closed when 
the audience had assembled, and no egress 
allowed on any pretext whatever. Such reg- 
ulations of course excited great complaint, 
and much ridicule ; especially as the sessions 
at these spectacles were sometimes protracted 



218 Nero. [A.D. 63. 

Races and games. Nero generally the victor. 

and tiresome to the last degree. Even sud- 
den sickness was not a sufficient reason for 
allowing a spectator to depart, and so it was 
said that the people used sometimes to feign 
death, in order to be carried out to their 
burial. In some cases, it was said, births 
took place in the theaters, the mothers hav- 
ing come incautiously with the crowd to 
witness the spectacles, without properly con- 
sidering what might be the effect of the 
excitement, and then afterward not being per- 
mitted to retire. 

Besides singing and acting on the stage, 
Nero took part in every other species of pub- 
lic amusement. He entered as a competitor 
for the prize in races and games of every kind. 
Of course he always came off victor. This 
end was accomplished sometimes by the secret 
connivance of the other competitors, and some- 
times by open bribery of the judges. Nero's 
ridiculous vanity and self-conceit seemed to 
be fully gratified by receiving the prize, 
without any regard whatever to the question 
of deserving it. He used to come back some- 
times from journeys to foreign cities, where 
he had been performing on the stage at great 
public festivals, and enter Eome in triumph, 



A.D. 63.] E e Depravity. 219 

His prp- deter. His midnight brawls. 



th ? inds, and crowns, and other 

\vtrich he had won, paraded be- 
lim in the procession, in the manner in 
which distinguished commanders had been 
accustomed to display the trophies of their 
military victories, when returning from for- 
eign campaigns. 

In fact it was only in the perpetration of 
such miserable follies as these that Nero ap- 
peared before the public at all, and in his pri- 
vate conduct and character he sank very rap- 
idly, after he came into power, to the very 
lowest degree of profligacy and vice. After 
having spent the evening in drinking and de- 
bauchery, he would sally forth into the streets 
at midnight, as has already been stated, to 
mingle there with the vilest men and women 
of the town in brawls and riots. On these 
excursions he would attack such peaceable 
parties as he chanced to meet in the streets, 
and if they made resistance, he and his com- 
panions would beat them down and throw 
them into canals or open sewers. Sometimes 
in these combats he was beaten himself, and 
on one occasion he came very near losing his 
life, having been almost killed by the blows 
dealt upon him by a certain Eoman senator, 



220 Nero. [A.D. 63. 

Rioting and excess. His great feasts. The artificial lake. 

whose wife he insulted as she was walking 
with her husband in the street. The senator, 
of course, did not know him. He used to go 
to the theater in disguise, in company with a 
gang of companions of similar character to 
himself, and watch for opportunities to excite 
or encourage riots or tumults there, When- 
ever he could succeed in urging these tumults 
on to actual violence he would mingle in the 
fray, and throw stones and fragments of 
broken benches and furniture among the 
people. 

After a while, when he had grown more 
bold and desperate in his wickedness, he be- 
gan to lay aside all disguise, and at last he 
actually seemed to take a pride and pleasure 
in exhibiting the scenes of riot and excess in 
which he engaged, in the most impudent 
manner before the public gaze. He used to 
celebrate great feasts in the public amphithe- 
aters, and on the arena of the circus, and ca- 
rouse there in company with the most disso- 
lute men and women of the city — a spectacle 
to the whole population. There was a large 
artificial lake or reservoir in one part of the 
city, built for the purpose of exhibiting 
mimic representations of the manceuvers of 



A.D. 63.] Extreme Depravity. 221 

Immense sums of money expended by Nero. 

fleets, and naval battles, for the amusement 
of the people at great public celebrations. 
There were, of course, numerous ranges of 
seats around the margin of this lake for the 
accommodation of the spectators. Nero took 
possession of this structure for some of his 
carousals, in order to obtain greater scope for 
ostentation and display. The water was 
drawn off on such occasions and the gates 
shut, and then the bottom of the reservoir 
was floored over to make space for the tables. 
The sums of money which Nero spent in 
the pursuit of sensual pleasures were incalcu- 
lable. In fact there were no bounds to his 
extravagance and profusion. He had com- 
mand, of course, of all the treasure of the em- 
pire, and he procured immense sums besides, 
by fines, confiscations, and despotic exactions 
of various kinds ; and as he undertook no 
public enterprises — being seldom engaged in 
foreign wars, and seldom attempting any use- 
ful constructions in the city — the vast re- 
sources at his command were wholly devoted 
to the purposes of ostentatious personal dis- 
play, and sensual gratifications. The pomp 
and splendor of his feasts, his processions, his 
journeys of pleasure, and the sums that he is 



222 Net [A.D. 63. 

His favorites. 3xcursions to Ostia. 



said to have lavishc Les in money 

and jewels, and sometimeb i ens, 

and equipages, upon his favorite^, ; 
and female, are almost incredible. On *>ome 
of the pleasure excursions which he took to 
the mouth of the Tiber, he would have the 
banks of the river lined with booths and costly 
tents all the way from the river to the sea. 
These tents were provided with sumptuous 
entertainments, and with beds and couches 
for repose ; and they were all attended by 
beautiful girls who stood at the doors of them 
inviting Nero and his party to land, as they 
passed along the river in their barges. He 
used to fish with a golden net, which was drawn 
by silken cords of a rich scarlet color. Oc- 
casionally he made grand excursions of pleas- 
ure through Italy or into Greece, in the style 
of royal progresses. In these expeditions he 
sometimes had no less than a thousand carts 
to convey his baggage — the mules that drew 
them being all shod with silver, and their 
drivers dressed in scarlet clothes of the most 
costly character. He was attended, also, on 
these excursions, by a numerous train of foot- 
men, and of African servants, who wore rich 



A.D. 64.] Extreme Depravity. 223 

The burning of Rome. Nero accused of being the incendiary. 

bracelets upon their arms, and were mounted 
on b^ses splendidly caparisoned. 

One of the most remarkable of the events 
which occurred during Nero's reign was what 
was called the burning of Home, — a great 
conflagration, by which a large part of the 
city was destroyed. It was very generally 
believed at the time that this destruction was 
the work of Nero himself, — the fruit of his 
reckless and willful depravity. There is, it is 
true, no very positive proof that the fire was 
set by Nero's orders, though one of the histo- 
rians of the time states that confidential ser- 
vants belonging to Nero's household were 
seen, when the fire commenced, going from 
house to house with combustibles and torches, 
spreading the flames. He was himself at 
Antium at the time, and did not come to 
Rome until the fire had been raging for many 
days. If it is true that the fire was Nero's 
work, it is not supposed that he designed to 
cause so extensive a conflagration. He in- 
tended, perhaps, only to destroy a few build- 
ings that covered ground which he wished to 
occupy for the enlargement of his palaces ; 
though it was said by some writers that he 
really designed to destroy a great part of the 



224 


Nero. 


[A.D. 64. 


His probable motives. 




He comes to see the fire. 



city, with a view to immortalize his ^ame by 
rebuilding it in a new and more splendid 
form. With these motives, if these indeed 
were his motives, there was doubtless mingled 
a feeling of malicious gratification at any 
thing that would terrify and torment the mis- 
erable subjects of his power. When he came 
to Rome from Antium at the time that the 
conflagration was at its height, he found the 
whole city a scene of indescribable terror 
and distress. Thousands of the people had 
been burned to death or crushed beneath the 
ruins of the fallen houses. The streets were 
filled with piles of goods and furniture burnt 
and broken. Multitudes of men, though near- 
ly exhausted with fatigue, were desperately 
toiling on, in hopeless endeavors to extinguish 
the flames, or to save some small remnant of 
their property, — and distracted mothers, wild 
and haggard from terror and despair, were 
roaming to and fro, seeking their children, — ■ 
Borne moaning in anguish, and some piercing 
the air with loud and frantic outcries. Nero 
was entertained by the scene as if it had been 
a great dramatic spectacle. He went to one 
of the theaters, and taking his place upon the 
stage he amused himself there with singing 



AJ). 64.] Extreme Depravity. 227 

He celebrates the occasion by a song. 

and playing a celebrated composition on the 
subject of the burning of Troy. At least it 
was said and generally believed in the city 
that he did so, and the minds of the people 
were excited against the inhuman monster 
to the highest pitch of indignation. In fact, 
JSTero seems to have thought at last that he 
had gone too far, and he began to make efforts 
in earnest to relieve the people from some 
portion of their distress. He caused great 
numbers of tents to be erected in the parade- 
ground for temporary shelter, and brought 
fresh supplies of corn into the city to save the 
people from famine. These measures of 
mercy, however, came too late to retrieve his 
character. The people attributed the miseries 
of this dreadful calamity to his desperate ma- 
liciousness, and he became the object of uni- 
versal execration. 



228 Nero. [A.D. 65. 

Origin and nature of Piso's conspiracy. 



Chapter X. 

Piso's Conspiracy. 

\ LTHOUGH the people of Eome were 
-£■*- generally so overawed by the terror of 
Nero's power, that for a long period no one 
dared to make any open resistance to his will, 
still his excesses and cruelties excited in the 
minds of men a great many secret feelings of 
resentment and detestation. At one period 
in the conrse of his reign a very desperate 
conspiracy was formed by some of the leading 
men of the state, to dethrone and destrov the 
tyrant. This plot was a very extensive and 
a very formidable one. It was, however, ac- 
cidentally discovered before it was fully ma- 
ture, and thus was unsuccessful. It is known 
in history as Piso's Conspiracy — deriving its 
name from that of the principal leader of it, 
Caius Calpurnius Piso. 

It is not supposed, however, that Piso was 
absolutely the originator of the conspiracy, 
nor is it known, in fact, who the originator 
of it was. A great number of prominent men 



A.D. 65.] 


Piso 1 


'S 


C 


ONSPIEACY. 


229 


Lucan, the Latin poet. 






His quarrel 


with Nero. 



were involved in the plot — men who, possess- 
ing very different characters, and occupying 
very different stations in life, were probably 
induced by various motives to take part in the 
conspiracy. A conspiracy, however, of this 
kind, against so merciless a tyrant as Nero, is 
an enterprise of such frightful danger, and is 
attended, if unsuccessful, with such awful 
consequences to all concerned in it, that men 
will seldom engage in such a scheme until 
goaded to desperation, and almost maddened, 
by the wrongs which they have endured. 

And yet the exasperation which these con- 
spirators felt against Nero, seems to have been 
produced, in some instances at least, by what 
we should now consider rather inadequate 
causes. For example, one of the men most 
active in this secret league, was the celebrated 
Latin poet Lucan. In the early part of his 
life, Lucan had been one of Nero's principal 
flatterers, having written hymns and sonnets 
in his praise. At length, as it was said, some 
public occasion occurred in which verses were 
to be recited in public, for a prize. Nero, 
who imagined himself to excel in every hu- 
man art or attainment, offered some of his own 
verses in the competition. The prize, how- 



230 Neeo. [A.D. 65. 

Lateranus. Celebrity of his name. 

ever, was adjudged to Lucan. Nero's mind 
was accordingly filled with envy and hate to- 
ward his rival, and he soon found some pre- 
text for forbidding Lucan ever to recite any 
verses in public again. This of course exas- 
perated Lucan in his turn, and was the cause 
of his joining in the conspiracy. 

Another of the conspirators was a certain 
Roman nobleman, whose family name has 
since become very widely known in all parts 
of the civilized world, through an estate in the 
city with which it was associated, — which es- 
tate, and certain buildings erected upon it, be- 
came subsequently greatly celebrated in the 
ecclesiastical history of Rome. The name of 
this nobleman was Plautius Lateranus. When 
Lateranus was put to death at the detection of 
the conspiracy, in the manner to be presently 
described, his estate was confiscated. The 
palace and grounds thus became the property 
of the Roman emperors. In process of time, 
the emperor Constantine gave the place to 
the pope, and from that period it continued to 
be the residence of the successive pontiffs for 
a thousand years. A church was built upon 
the ground, called the Basilica of St. John of 
Lateran, where many ancient councils were 



A.D. 65.] Pises Conspiracy. 231 



The church of St. John Lateran. 



held, known in ecclesiastical history as the 
councils of the Lateran. This church is still 
used for some of the ceremonies connected 
with the inauguration of the pope, but the 
palace is now uninhabited. It presents, how- 
ever, in its ruins, a vast and imposing, though 
desolate aspect. 

Lateranus was an unprincipled and disso- 
lute man, and in consequence of certain 
crimes which he committed in connection 
with Messalina, during the reign of Claudius, 
he had been condemned to death. The sen- 
tence of death was not executed, though Lat- 
eranus was deprived of his rank, and doomed 
to live in retirement and disgrace. At the 
death of Claudius, and the accession of Nero, 
Lateranus was fully pardoned and restored to 
his former rank and position, through Nero's 
instrumentality. It might have been sup- 
posed that gratitude for these favors would 
have prevented Lateranus from joining such 
a conspiracy as this against his benefactor, 
but gratitude has very little place in the 
hearts of those who dwell in the courts and 
palaces of such tyrants as Nero. 

The man on whom the conspirators relied 
most for efficient military aid, so far as such 



232 USTebo. [A.D. 65. 

Fenius Rufus. A woman in the secret. 

aid should be needed in their enterprise, was 
a certain Fenius Rufus, a captain of the im- 
perial guards. He was a man of very resolute 
and decided character, and was very highly 
esteemed by the people of Rome. He was 
not one of the originators of the plot, but 
joined it at a later period ; and when the 
news of his accession to it was communicated 
to the rest, it gave them great encouragement, 
as they attached great importance to the ad- 
hesion of such a man to their cause. They 
now immediately began to take measures for 
executing their plans. 

There was a woman in the secret of this 
conspiracy, though how she obtained a knowl- 
edge of it no one seemed to know. Her name 
was Epicharis. While the execution of the 
plans of the confederates was delayed, Epi- 
charis came to the principal conspirators 
privately, first to one and then to another, and 
urged them to action. None of the members 
of the plot would admit that they had given 
her any information on the subject, and how 
she obtained her information no one could 
tell. She was a woman of bad character, and 
as such women often are, she was violent and 
implacable in her hatred. She hated Nero, 



A.D. 65.J Piso's Conspiracy. 233 

Plans and arrangements of the conspirators. 

and was so impatient at the delay of the con- 
spirators that she made repeated and earnest 
efforts to urge them on. 

The conspirators in the mean time held 
various secret meetings to mature their plans, 
and to complete the preparation for the exe- 
cution of them. They designed to destroy 
Nero by some violent means, and then to 
cause Piso to be proclaimed emperor in his 
place. Piso was a man well suited for their 
purpose in this respect. He was tall and 
graceful in form, and his personal appearance 
was in every respect prepossessing. His rank 
was very high, and he was held in great esti- 
mation by all the people of the city for the 
many generous and noble qualities that he 
possessed. He was allied, too, to the most 
illustrious families of Rome, and he occupied 
in all respects so conspicuous a position, and 
was so much an object of popular favor, that 
the conspirators believed that his elevation to 
the empire could easily be effected, if Nero 
himself could once be put out of the way. To 
effect the assassination of Nero, therefore, was 
the first step. 

After much debate, and many consultations 
in respect to the best course to be pursued, it 



2M Nero. [A.D. 65. 

Bold proposals of Flavius. The palace to be set on fire. 

was decided to accept the offer of a certain 
Subrius Flavins, who undertook to kill the 
emperor in the streets, at night, at some time 
when he was roaming about in his carousals. 
Flavius, in fact, was very daring and resolute 
in his proposals, though wanting, as it proved 
in the end, in the fulfillment of them. He 
offered to stab Nero in the theater, when he 
was singing on the stage, in the midst of all 
the thousands of spectators convened there. 
This the conspirators thought, it seems, an un- 
necessarily bold and desperate mode of ac- 
complishing the end in view, and the plan 
was accordingly overruled. Flavius then 
proposed to set the palace on fire some night 
when Nero was out in the city, and then, in 
the confusion that would ensue, and while the 
attention of the guards who had accompanied 
Nero should be drawn toward the fire, to 
assassinate the emperor in the streets. This 
plan was acceded to by the conspirators, and 
it was left to Flavius to select a favorable 
time for the execution of it. 

Time passed on, however, and nothing was 
done. The favorable time which Flavius 
looked for did not appear. In the mean- 
while Epicharis became more and more im- 



A.D. 65.] Piso's Conspiracy. 235 

Epichitris impatient. She goes to the fleet. 

patient of the delay. She urged the conspir- 
ators to do their work, and chided in the 
strongest terms their irresolution and pusil- 
lanimity. At length finding that her invec- 
tives and reproaches were of no avail, she de- 
termined to leave them, and to see what she 
could do herself toward the attainment of the 
end. 

She accordingly left Rome and proceeded 
southwardly along the coast till she came to 
Misenum, which, as has already been said, 
was the great naval station of the empire at 
this time. Epicharis went to some of the offi- 
cers of the fleet, many of whom she knew, — 
and in a very secret and cautious manner 
made known to them the nature of the plot 
which had been formed at Rome for the de- 
struction of Nero and the elevation of Piso to 
the empire in his stead. Before, however, 
communicating intelligence of the conspiracy 
to any persons whatever, Epicharis would con- 
verse with them secretly and confidentially 
to learn how they were affected toward Nero 
and his government. If she found them well 
disposed she said nothing. If on the other 
hand any one appeared discontented with the 
government, or hostile to it in any way, she 



236 Nero. [A.D. 65. 

She communicates with Proculus at Misenum. 

would cautiously make known to him the 
plans which were concocting at Rome for the 
overthrow of it. She took care, however, in 
these conversations to have never more than 
one person present with her at a time, and 
she revealed none of the names of the con- 
spirators. 

Among the other officers of the fleet was a 
certain Proculus, who was one of the first with 
whom Epicharis communicated. Proculus 
was one of the men who had been employed 
by Nero in his attempts to assassinate Agrip- 
pina his mother, and for his services on that 
occasion had been promoted to the command 
of a certain number of ships, a number con- 
taining in all one thousand men. This pro- 
motion, however, as Epicharis found when she 
came to converse with him, Proculus did not 
consider as great a reward as his services had 
deserved. The perpetration of so horrible a 
crime as the murder of the emperor's mother, 
merited, in his opinion, as he said to Epicha- 
ris, a much higher recompense than the com- 
mand of a thousand men. Epicharis thought 
so too. She talked with Proculus about his 
wrongs, and the injuries which he suffered 
from Nero's ingratitude and neglect, until she 



A.D. 65.] Piso's Conspiracy. 237 



Proculus reveals the plot to Nero. 



fancied that he was in a state of mind which 
would prepare him to join in the plans of the 
conspirators, and then she cautiously unfolded 
them to him. 

Proculus listened with great apparent inter- 
est to Epicharis's communication, and pre- 
tended to enter very cordially into the plan 
of the conspiracy ; but as soon as the inter- 
view was ended he immediately left Mise- 
num, and proceeded immediately to Rome, 
where he divulged the whole design to Nero. 

Nero was exceedingly alarmed, and sent 
officers off at once to seize Epicharis and bring 
her before him. Epicharis, when questioned 
and confronted with Proculus, resolutely de- 
nied that she had ever held any such con- 
versation with Proculus as he alledged, and 
feigned the utmost astonishment at what she 
termed the impudence of his accusation. She 
called for witnesses and proofs. Proculus of 
course could produce none, for Epicharis had 
taken care that there should be no third per- 
son present at their interviews. Proculus 
could not even give the names of any of the 
conspirators at Rome. He could only persist 
in his declaration that Epicharis had really 
disclosed to him the existence of the conspir- 



238 Nero. [A.D. 65. 

Nero perp'exed. Epicharis iraprisoned. 

acy, and had proposed to him to join in it ; 
while she on the contrary as strenuously and 
positively denied it. Nero was perplexed. 
He found it impossible to determine what t< 
believe. He finally dismissed Proculus, and 
sent Epicharis to prison, intending that she 
should remain there until he could make 2 
more full examination into the case, and de- 
termine what to do. 

In the mean time the conspirators became 
considerably alarmed when they heard of the 
arrest of Epicharis, and though they knew 
that thus far she had revealed nothing, they 
could not tell how soon her fidelity and firm- 
ness might yield under the tortures to which 
she was every day liable to be subjected ; and 
as there appeared to be now no prospect that 
Flavius would ever undertake to execute his 
plan, they began to devise some other means 
of attaining the end. 

It seems that Piso possessed at this time a 
villa and country-seat at Baise, on the coast 
south of Rome, and near to Misenum, and 
that Nero was accustomed sometimes to visit 
Piso here. It was now proposed by some of 
the conspirators that Piso should invite Nero 
to visit him at this villa, as if to witness some 



A.D. 65.] Piso's Conspiracy. 239 

A new plan. Piso's objections. Reasons. 

spectacles or shows which should be arranged 
for his entertainment there, and that then 
persons employed for the purpose should sud- 
denly assassinate him, when off his guard, in 
the midst of some scene of convivial pleasure. 
Piso, however, objected to this plan. He con- 
ceived, he said, that it would be dishonorable 
in him to commit an act of violence upon a 
guest whom he had invited under his roof, as 
his friend. He was willing to take his full 
share of the responsibility of destroying the 
tyrant in any fair and manly way, but he 
would not violate the sacred rites of hospital- 
ity to accomplish the end. 

So this plan was abandoned. It was sup- 
posed, however, that Piso had another and a 
deeper reason for his unwillingness that Nero 
should be assassinated at Baise than his re- 
gard for his honor as a host. He thought, it 
was said, that it would not be safe for him to 
be away from Rome when the death of Nero 
should be proclaimed in the capitol, lest some 
other Roman nobleman or great officer of 
state should suddenly arise in the emergency 
and assume the empire. There were, in fact, 
one or two men in Rome of great power and 
influence, of whom Piso was specially jealous 



240 Nero. [A.D. 65. 

Final arrangements agreed upon. 

and lie was naturally very much disposed to 
be on his guard against opening any door of 
opportunity for them to rise to power. To 
commit a great crime in order to secure his own 
aggrandizement, and yet to manage the com- 
mission of it in such a way as not only to shut 
himself off from the expected benefit, but to 
secure that benefit to a hated rival, would 
have been a very fatal misstep. So the plan 
of destroying Nero at Baiae was overruled. 

At length one more, and as it proved a final 
scheme, was formed for accomplishing the 
purpose of the conspiracy. It was determined 
to execute Nero in Rome, at a great public 
celebration which was then about to take 
place. It seems that it was sometimes cus- 
tomary in ancient times for persons who had 
any request or petition to make to an em- 
peror or king, to avail themselves of the occa- 
sion of such celebrations to present them. 
Accordingly it was determined that Lateranus 
should approach Nero at a certain time du- 
ring the celebration of the games, as if to 
offer a petition, — the other conspirators being 
close at hand, and ready to act at a moment's 
warning. Lateranus, as soon as he was near 
enough, was to kneel down and suddenly 



A.D. 65.] Piso's Conspiracy. 241 



Nero to be slain in the theatre. 



draw the emperor's robes about his feet, and 
then clasp the feet thus enveloped, in his 
arms, so as to render Nero helpless. The 
other conspirators were then to rush forward 
and kill their victim with their daggers. In 
the mean time while Lateranus and his asso- 
ciates were perpetrating this deed in the cir- 
cus where the games were to be exhibited, 
Piso was to station himself in a certain tem- 
ple not far distant, to await the result ; while 
Fenius, the officer of the guard, who has al- 
ready been mentioned as the chief military 
reliance of the conspirators, was to be posted 
in another part of the city, with a military 
cavalcade in array, ready to proceed through 
the streets and bring Piso forth to be pro- 
claimed emperor as soon as he should receive 
the tidings that Nero had been slain. It is 
said that in order to give additional eclat and 
popularity to the proceeding, it was arranged 
that Octavia, a daughter of Claudius, the 
former emperor, was to be brought forward 
with Piso in the cavalcade, as if to combine 
the influence of her hereditary claims, what- 
ever they might be, with the personal popu- 
larity of Piso in favor of the new government 
about to be established, 

Q 



242 Neeo. [A.D.65. 

The several parts assigned. Scevinus. 

Thus every thing was arranged. To each 
conspirator, his own particular duty was as- 
signed, and, as the day approached for the 
execution of the scheme, every thing seemed 
to promise success. It is obvious, however, 
that, as the affair had been arranged, all 
would depend upon the resolution and fidel- 
ity of those who had been designated to stab 
the emperor with their daggers, when Late- 
ranus should have grasped his feet. The 
slightest faltering or fear at this point, would 
be fatal to the whole scheme. The man on 
whom the conspirators chiefly relied for this 
part of their work, was a certain desperate 
profligate, named Scevinus, who had been 
one of the earliest originators of the conspir- 
acy, and one of the most dauntless and deter- 
mined of the promoters of it, so far as words 
and professions could go. He particularly 
desired that the privilege of plunging the 
first dagger into Nero's heart should be 
granted to him. He had a knife, he said, 
which he had found in a certain temple a long 
time before, and which he had preserved and 
carried about his person constantly ever since, 
for some such deed. So it was arranged that 
Scevinus should strike the fatal blow. 



A.D. 65.] Piso's Conspiracy. 243 

Excitement of Scevinus. His knife. 

As the time drew nigh, Scevinus seemed 
to grow more and more excited with the 
thoughts of what was before him. He at- 
tracted the attention of the domestics at his 
house, by his strange and mysterious demean- 
or. He held a long and secret consultation 
with ISTatalis, another conspirator, on the 
day before the one appointed for the execu- 
tion of the plot, under such circumstances as 
to increase still more the wonder and curios- 
ity of his servants. He formally executed 
his will, as if he were approaching some dan- 
gerous crisis. He made presents to his serv- 
ants, and actually emancipated one or two 
of his favorite slaves. He talked with all he 
met, in a rapid and incoherent manner, on 
various subjects, and with an air of gayety 
and cheerfulness which it was obvious to 
those who observed him was all assumed; 
for, in the intervals of these conversations, 
and at every pause, he relapsed into a 
thoughtful and absent mood, as if he were 
meditating some deep and dangerous design. 

That night, too, he took out his knife from 
its sheath, and gave it to one of his servants, 
named Milichus, to be ground. He directed 
Milichus to be particularly attentive to the 



244 



Nero. 



[A.D. 65. 



He gives his knife to Milichus to be ground. 




THE KNIFE. 



sharpening of the point. Before Milichus 
brought back the knife, Scevinus directed 
him to prepare bandages such as would be 
suitable for binding up wounds to stop the 
effusion of blood. Milichus observed all these 
directions, and, having made all the prepara- 
tions required, according to the orders which 
Scevinus had given him, — keeping the knife, 
however, still in his possession, — he went to 
report the whole case to his wife, in order to 



A.D. 65 J Piso's Conspiracy. 245 

Milichus confers with his wife. Their suspicions. 

consult with her in respect to the meaning of 
all these mysterious indications. 

The wife of Milichus soon came to the con- 
clusion, that these strange proceedings could 
denote nothing less than a plot against the 
life of the emperor ; and she urged her hus- 
band to go early the next morning, and make 
known his discovery. She told him that it 
was impossible that such a conspiracy should 
succeed, for it must be known to a great 
many persons, some one of whom would be 
sure to divulge it in hope of a reward. " If 
you divulge it," she added, "you will secure 
the reward for yourself ; and if you do not, 
you will be supposed to be privy to it, when 
it is made known by others, and so will be 
sacrificed with the rest to Nero's anger." 

Milichus was convinced by his wife's rea- 
sonings, and on the following morning, as 
soon as the day dawned, he rose and repaired 
to the palace. At first he was refused ad- 
mittance, but on sending word to the officer of 
the household, that he had intelligence of the 
most urgent importance to communicate to 
Nero, they allowed him to come in. When 
brought into Nero's presence, he told his 
story, describing particularly all the circum- 



246 Neeo. [A.D. 65. 



Revelations made by Milictms. 



stances that he had observed, which had led 
him to suppose that a conspiracy was formed. 
He spoke of the long and mysterious consul- 
tation which Scevinus and Natalis had held 
together on the preceding day ; he described 
the singular conduct and demeanor which 
Scevinus had subsequently manifested, the 
execution of his will, his wild and incoherent 
conversation, his directions in respect to the 
sharpening of the knife and the preparation 
of the bandages ; and, to crown his proofs, he 
produced the knife itself, which he had kept 
for this purpose, and which thus furnished, in 
some sense, an ocular demonstration of the 
truth of what he had declared. 

Officers were immediately sent to seize 
Scevinus, and to bring him into the presence 
of the emperor. Scevinus knew, of course, 
that the only possible hope for him was in a 
bold and resolute denial of the charge made 
against him. He accordingly denied, in the 
most solemn manner, that there was any plot 
or conspiracy whatever, and he attempted to 
explain all the circumstances which had 
awakened his servant's suspicions. The knife 
or dagger which Milichus had produced, was 
an ancient family relic, he said, — one which 



A.D. 65.] Piso's Conspiracy. 247 

Scevinus's defense. He denies the allegations of his accuser. 

he had kept for a long time in his chamber, 
and which his servant had obtained surrepti- 
tiously, for the purpose of sustaining his false 
and malicious charge against his master. As 
to his will, he often made and signed a will 
anew, he said, as many other persons were 
accustomed to do, and no just inference 
against him could be drawn from the circum- 
stance that he had done this on the preceding 
day ; and in respect to the bandages and 
other preparation for the dressing of wounds 
which Milichus alledged that he had ordered, 
he denied the statement altogether. He had 
not given any such orders. The whole story 
was the fabrication of a vile slave, attempt- 
ing, by these infamous means, to compass his 
master's destruction. Scevinus said all this 
with so bold and intrepid a tone of voice, and 
with such an air of injured innocence, that 
Nero and his friends were half disposed to 
believe that he was unjustly accused, and to 
dismiss him from custody. This might very 
probably have been the result, and Milichus 
himself might have been punished for making 
a false and malicious accusation, had not the 
sagacity of his wife, who was all the time 
watching these proceedings with the most 



248 Neeo. [A.D. 65. 

Nero perplexed. The truth at last discovered. 

anxious interest, furnished a clew which, in 
the end, brought the whole truth to light. 

She called attention to the long conference 
which Scevinus had held with Natalis on the 
preceding day. Scevinus was accordingly 
questioned concerning it. He declared that 
his interview was nothing but an innocent 
consultation about his own private affairs. He 
was questioned then about the particulars of 
the conversation. Of course he was compelled 
to fabricate a statement in reply. Natalis 
himself was then sent for, and examined, 
apart from Scevinus, in regard to the conver- 
sation they had held together. ISTatalis, of 
course, fabricated a story too, — but, as usual 
with such fabrications, the two accounts 
having been invented independently, were 
inconsistent with each other. Nero was im- 
mediately convinced that the men were guilty, 
and that some sort of plot or conspiracy had 
been formed. He ordered that they should 
both be put to the torture in order to compel 
them to confess their crime, and disclose the 
names of their accomplices. In the mean 
time they were sent to prison, and loaded 
with irons, to be kept in that condition until 
the instruments of torture could be prepared. 



A.D. 65.] Piso's Conspiracy. 249 

Scevinus and Natalis make a full confession. 

"When at length they were brought to the 
rack, the sight of the horrid machinery un- 
manned them. They begged to be spared, and 
promised to reveal the whole. They acknowl- 
edged that a conspiracy had been formed, 
and gave the names of all who had partici- 
pated in it. They explained fully, too, the 
plans which had been devised, and as in this 
case, though they were examined separately, 
their statements agreed, Nero and his friends 
were convinced of the truth of their declara- 
tions, and thus at last the plot was fully 
brought to light. ISTero himself was struck 
with consternation and terror at discovering 
the formidable danger to which he had been 
exposed. 



250 Neeo. [A J). 65. 

. __ — __ — . — . ,, ______ — _ 

Epicharis denies all knowledge of the conspiracy. 



Chapter XL 
The Fate of the Conspirators. 

A S soon as Nero had obtained all the in- 
-£-*- formation which he and his officers could 
draw from Scevinus and Natalis, and had sent 
to all parts of the city to arrest those whom 
the forced disclosures of these witnesses ac- 
cused, he thought of Epicharis, who, it will be 
recollected, had been sent to prison, and who 
was still in confinement there. He ordered 
Epicharis to be told that concealment was no 
longer possible, — that Scevinus and _N~atalis 
had divulged the plot in full, and that her 
only hope lay in amply confessing all that 
she knew. 

This announcement had no effect upon 
Epicharis. She refused to admit that she 
knew any thing of any conspiracy. 

_N"ero then ordered that she should be put 
to the torture. The engines were prepared 
and she was brought before them. The sight 
of them produced no change. She was then 
placed upon the wheel, and her frail and 



AJD. 65.] The Conspirators. 251 

Seizures and executions. General panic. 

delicate limbs were stretched, dislocated, and 
broken, until she had endured every form of 
agony which such engines could produce. 
Her constancy remained unshaken to the end. 
At length, when she was so much exhausted 
by her sufferings that she could no longer feel 
the pain, she was taken away to be restored 
by medicaments, cordials, and rest, in order 
that she might recover strength to endure 
new tortures on the following day. 

In the mean time, panic and excitement 
reigned throughout the city. Nero doubled 
his guards ; he garrisoned his palace ; he 
brought out bodies of armed men, and station- 
ed them on the walls of the city and in the 
public squares, or marched them to and fro 
about the streets. As fast as men were 
accused they were put to the question, and as 
each one saw that the only hope for safety to 
himself was in freely denouncing others, the 
names of supposed confederates were revealed 
in great numbers, and as fast as these names 
were obtained the men were seized and im- 
prisoned or executed — the innocent and the 
guilty together. 

On the very first announcement that the 
plot had been discovered, those of the con- 



252 Nero. [A.D. 65. 

Death of Piso. The conspirator's discouraged. 

spirators who were still at large made all 
haste to the house of Piso. They found him 
prostrate in consternation and despair. They 
urged him immediately to come forth, and to 
put himself at the head of an armed force, 
and fight for his life. Desperate as such an 
undertaking might be, no other alternative, 
they said, was now left to him. But all was 
of no avail. The conspirators could not arouse 
him to action. They were obliged to retire 
and leave him to his fate. He opened the 
veins in his arm, and bled to death while the 
soldiers whom Nero had sent were breaking 
into his house to arrest him. 

Being thus deprived of their leader, the 
conspirators gave up all hope of effecting the 
revolution, and thought only of the means of 
screening themselves from Nero's vengeance. 

In the mean time, Epicharis had so far re- 
covered during the night, that on the follow- 
ing morning it was determined to bring her 
again to the torture. She was utterly help- 
less, — her limbs having been broken by the 
execution of the day before. The officers ac- 
cordingly put her into a sort of sedan chair, or 
covered litter, in order that she might be car- 
ried by bearers to the place of torture. She was 



A.D. 65.] The Couspieatoks. 



253 



Epicharis at the torture. 



Her death. 




BRINGING EPICHARIS TO THE TORTURE. 

borne in this way to the spot, but when the 
executioners opened the door of the chair to 
take her out, they beheld a shocking spectacle. 
Their wretched victim had escaped from their 
power. She was hanging by the neck, dead. 
She had contrived to make a noose in one end 
of the cincture with which she was girded, and 
fastening the other end to some part of the 
chair within, she had succeeded in bringing 
the weight of her body upon the noose around 



254 Neeo. [AD. 65. 

The conspirators tried before Nero. Flavius. 

her neck, and had died without disturbing her 
bearers as they walked along. 

In the mean time the various parties that 
were accused were seized in great numbers, 
and were brought in for trial before a sort of 
court-martial which Nero himself, with some 
of his principal officers, held for this purpose 
in the gardens of the palace. The number of 
those accused was so large that the avenues 
to the garden were blocked up with them, and 
with the parties of soldiers that conducted 
them, and multitudes were detained together 
at the gates, in a state, of course, of awful 
suspense and agitation, waiting their turns. 
It happened singularly enough that among 
those whom Nero summoned to serve on the 
tribunal for the trial of the prisoners were two 
of the principal conspirators, who had not yet 
been accused. These were Subrius Flavius 
and Fenius Eufus, whom the reader will per- 
haps recollect as prominent members of the 
plot. Flavius was the man who had once 
undertaken to kill the emperor in the streets, 
and while standing near him at the tribunal, 
he made signs to the other conspirators that 
he was ready to stab him to the heart now, 
if they would but say the word. But Eufus 



A.D. 65.] The Conspieatoes. 255 

Demeanor of Rufus in the garden. He is accused. 

restrained him, anxiously signifying to him 
that he was by no means to attempt it. Rufus 
in fact seems to have been as weak-minded 
and irresolute as Flavius was desperate and 
bold. 

In fact although Rufus, when summoned to 
attend in the garden, for the trial of the con- 
spirators, did not dare to disobey, he yet found 
it very difficult to summon resolution to face 
the appalling dangers of his position. He 
took his place at last among the others, and 
with a forced external composure which ill 
concealed the desperate agitation and anxiety 
which reigned in his soul, he gave himself to 
the work of trying and condemning his con- 
federates and companions. For a time no 
one of them betrayed him. But at length dur- 
ing the examination of Scevinus, in his solici- 
tude to appear zealous in Nero's cause he 
overacted his part, so far as to press Scevinus 
too earnestly with his inquiries, until at 
length Scevinus turned indignantly toward 
him saying — 

"Why do you ask these questions? No 
person in Rome knows more about this con- 
spiracy than you, and if you feel so devoted 
to this humane and virtuous prince of yours, 



256 Nero. [A.D. 65. 

Rufus begs for his life. His execution. 

show your gratitude by telling him, yourself, 
the whole story." 

Bufus was perfectly overwhelmed at this 
sudden charge, and could not say a word. 
He attempted to speak, but he faltered and 
stammered, and then sank down into his seat, 
pale and trembling, and covered with confu- 
sion. Nero and the other members of the 
tribunal were convinced of his guilt. He was 
seized and put in irons, and after the same 
summary trial to which the rest were subject- 
ed, condemned to die. He begged for his 
life with the most earnest and piteous lamen- 
tations, but Nero was relentless, and he was 
immediately beheaded. 

The conspirator Flavius displayed a very 
different temper. When he came to be ac- 
cused, at first he denied the charge, and he 
appealed to his whole past character and 
course of life as proof of his innocence. 
Those who had informed against him, how- 
ever, soon furnished incontestable evidence 
of his guilt, and then changing his ground, he 
openly acknowledged his share in the con- 
spiracy and gloried in it even in the presence 
of Nero himself. When Nero asked him how 
he could so violate his oath of allegiance and 



A.D. 65.] The Conspirators. 257 

Flavius is accused. His desperation. He is executed. 



fidelity as to conspire against the life of his 
sovereign, he turned to him with looks of 
open and angry defiance and said — 

" It was because I hated and detested you, 
unnatural monster as you are. There was a 
time when there was not a soldier in your ser- 
vice who was more devoted to you than I. 
But that time has passed. Tou have drawn 
upon yourself the detestation and abhorrence 
of all mankind by your cruelties and your 
crimes. Tou have murdered your mother. 
Tou have murdered your wife. Tou are an 
incendiary. And not content with perpetrat- 
ing these enormous atrocities, you have de- 
graded yourself in the eyes of all Rome to the 
level of the lowest mountebank and buffoon, 
so as to make yourself the object of contempt 
as well as abhorrence. I hate and defy you." 

Nero was of course astonished and almost 
confounded at hearing such words. He had 
never listened to language like this before. 
His astonishment was succeeded by violent 
rage, and he ordered Flavius to be led out to 
immediate execution. 

The centurion to whom the execution was 
committed conducted Flavius without the city 
to a field, and then set the soldiers at work to 

R 



258 Nero. [A.D. 65. 

The execution of Flavius. The executioner's fears. 

dig the grave, as was customary at military 
executions, while he made the other necessary 
preparations. The soldiers, in their haste, 
shaped the excavation rudely and imperfectly. 
Flavius ridiculed their work, asking them, in 
a tone of contempt, if they considered that the 
proper way to dig a military grave. And 
when at length, after all the preparations had 
been made, and the fatal moment had ar- 
rived, the tribune who was in command called 
upon him to uncover his neck and stand forth 
courageously to meet his fate — he replied by 
exhorting the officer himself to be resolute 
and firm. "See," said he, "if you can show 
as much nerve in striking the blow, as I can 
in meeting it." To cut down such a man, 
under such circumstances, was of course a 
very dreadful duty, even for a Roman sol- 
dier, and the executioner faltered greatly in 
the performance of it. The decapitation 
should have been effected by a single blow ; 
but the officer found his strength failing him 
when he came to strike, so that a second blow 
was necessary to complete the severance of 
the head from the body. The tribune was 
afraid that this, when represented to Nero, 
might bring him under suspicion, as if it in- 



A.D. 65.] The Conspieatoss. 259 

Seneca. His character and public position. 

dicated some shrinking on his part from a 
prompt and vigorous action in putting down 
the conspiracy ; and so on his return to Nero 
he boasted of his performance as if it had 
been just as he intended. " I made the trai- 
tor die twice," said he, "by taking two blows 
to dispatch him." 

But perhaps the most melancholy of all the 
results of this most unfortunate conspiracy, 
was the fate of Seneca. Seneca, it will be 
remembered, had been Nero's instructor and 
guardian in former years, and subsequently 
one of his chief ministers of state. He was 
now almost seventy years of age, and besides 
the veneration in which he was held on this 
account, and the respect that was paid to the 
exalted position which he had occupied for so 
long a period, he was very highly esteemed for 
his intellectual endowments and for his private 
character. His numerous writings, in fact, 
had acquired for him an extensive literary 
fame. 

But JSTero hated him. He had long wished 
him out of the way. It was currently reported, 
and generally believed, that he had attempted 
to poison him. However this may be, he 
certainly desired to find some occasion of pro- 



260 Neeo. [A.D. 65. 

Evidence against Seneca. His journey to Rome. 

ceeding against him, and such an occasion 
was furnished by the developments connected 
with this conspiracy. 

ISTatalis, in the course of his testimony, said 
that he supposed that Seneca was concerned 
in the plot, for he recollected that he was 
once sent to him, while he was confined to his 
house by illness, with a message from Piso. 
The message was, that Piso had repeatedly 
called at his, that is, Seneca's house, but had 
been unable to obtain admittance. The an- 
swer which Seneca had returned was, that the 
reason why he had not received visitors was, 
that the state of his health was very infirm, 
but that he entertained none but friendly 
feelings toward Piso, and wished him pros- 
perity and success. 

Nero determined to consider this as proof 
that Seneca was privy to the conspiracy, and 
that he secretly abetted it. At least he de- 
termined, for a first step, to send an officer 
with a band of armed men to arrest him, and 
to lay the crime to his charge. Seneca was 
not in the city at this time. He had been 
absent in Campania, which was a beautiful 
rural region, south of Rome, back from Mis- 
enum. He was, however, that very day on 



A.D. 65.] The Conspirators. 261 

Seneca arrested. His defence. The officer's report. 

his return to Rome, and Silvanus, the officer 
whom Nero sent to him, met him on the way, 
at a villa which he possessed a few miles from 
Rome. The name of this villa was Nomen- 
tanum.* Seneca had stopped at the villa to 
spend the night, and was seated at the table 
with Paulina his wife, when Silvanus and his 
troop arrived. 

The soldiers surrounded the house, so as to 
prevent all possibility of escape, and posted 
sentinels at the doors. Silvanus and some of 
his associates then went in, and entering the 
hall where Seneca was at supper, they in- 
formed him for what purpose they were come. 
Silvanus repeated what Natalis had testified 
in respect to the messages which had passed 
between Seneca and Piso. Seneca admitted 
that the statement was true, but he declared 
that the word which he had sent to Piso was 
only an ordinary message of civility and 
friendliness ; it meant nothing more. Find- 
ing that no farther explanation could be ob- 
tained, Silvanus left Seneca in his villa, with 
a strong guard posted around the house, and 
returned to Rome to report to Nero. 

When Nero had heard the report, he asked 

* See map. Frontispiece. 



262 Nero. [AD. 65. 



Nero decides that Seneca must die. 



Silvanus whether Seneca appeared suffi- 
ciently terrified by the accusation to make 
it probable that he would destroy himself 
that night.* Silvanus answered no. " He 
displayed," said he, " no marks of fear. 
There was no agitation, no sign of regret, no 
token of sorrow. His words and looks be- 
spoke a mind calm, confident and firm." 

"Go to him," rejoined Nero, "and tell 
him that he must make up his mind to die." 

Silvanus was thunderstruck at receiving 
this order. He could not believe it possible 
that Nero would really put to death a man so 
venerable in years and wisdom, who had been 
to him all his life, in the place of a father. 
Instead of proceeding directly to Seneca's 
house he went to consult with the captain of 
the guard, who, though really one of the con- 
spirators, had not yet been accused, and was 
still at liberty, though trembling with appre- 

* It seems to have been considered by public men in those 
days, that to resolve on self-destruction was a much more 
honorable course to pursue in an extreme emergency like 
this, than to wait to be condemned and executed by the of- 
ficers of the law. The attempt to frighten a man into the 
act of killing himself was accordingly one of the various 
modes which a tyrant might resort to, to remove those who 
were obnoxious to him. 



A.D. 65.] The Conspirators. 263 

The death of Seneca. Grief and despair of Paulina. 

hension at the imminence of his danger. The 
captain, after hearing the case, said that 
nothing was to be done but to deliver the 
message. Silvanus then went to Seneca's 
villa, but not being able to endure the thought 
of being himself the bearer of such tidings, 
sent in a centurion with the message. 

Seneca received it with calm composure, 
and immediately made preparations for ter- 
minating his life. His wife Paulina insisted 
on sharing his fate. He gathered his friends 
around him to give them his parting counsels 
and bid them farewell, and ordered his ser- 
vants to make the necessary preparations for 
opening his veins. Then ensued one of those 
sad and awful scenes of mourning and death, 
with which the page of ancient history is so 
often darkened — forming pictures, as they do, 
too shocking to be exhibited in full detail. 
The calm composure of Seneca, was con- 
trasted on the one hand with the bitter an- 
guish and loud lamentations of his domestics 
and friends, and on the other with Paulina's 
mute despair. When the veins were opened, 
the blood at first would not flow, and various 
artificial means were resorted to, to accelerate 
the extinction of life ; at last, however, Sen- 



26i Nero. [A.D. 65. 

They save Paulina's life. The consul Vestinus. 

eca ceased to breathe. The domestics of the 
family then begged and entreated the soldiers 
with many tears, that they might be allowed 
to save Paulina if it were not too late. The 
soldiers consented ; so the women bound up 
her wounds, as she lay insensible and help- 
less before them, and thus stopping the far- 
ther effusion of blood, they watched over her 
with assiduous care, in hopes to restore her. 
They succeeded. They brought her back to 
life, or rather to a semblance of life ; for she 
never really recovered so as to be herself 
again, during the few lonely and desolate 
years through which she afterward lingered. 

There was another Roman citizen of the 
highest rank who fell an innocent victim to 
the angry passions which the discovery of 
this plot awakened in Nero's mind. It was 
the consul Yestinus. Yestinus was a man 
of great loftiness of character, and had never 
evinced that pliancy of temper, and that sub- 
missiveness to the imperial will, which Nero 
required. His position, too, as consul, which 
was the highest civil office in the common- 
wealth, gave him a vast influence over the 
people of Rome, so that Nero feared ds well 
as hated him. In fact, so great was his in- 



A.D. 65.] The Conspirators. 265 



Large force sent to arrest Vestinus. 



dependence of character, and his intracta- 
bility, as it was sometimes called, that the 
conspirators, after mature deliberation, had 
concluded not to propose to him to engage in 
the plot. But, though he was thus innocent, 
Nero did not certainly know the fact, and, at 
any rate, such an opportunity to effect the 
destruction of a hated rival, was too good to 
be lost. Very soon, therefore, after the dis- 
closure of the conspiracy had been made, 
Nero sent a tribune, at the head of five hun- 
dred men, to arrest the consul. 

This large force was designated for the ser- 
vice, partly because, — on account of the high 
rank and office of the accused, — Nero did not 
know what means of resistance the consul 
might be able to command, and partly be- 
cause his house, which was situated in the 
most public part of the city, overlooking the 
Forum, was in itself a sort of citadel, of 
w T hich the various officers of Vestinus's house- 
hold, and his numerous retainers, constituted 
a sort of garrison. It happened that, at the 
time when Nero sent his troop to make the 
arrest, Yestinus was entertaining a large 
party of friends at supper. The festivities 
were suddenly interrupted, and the whole 



266 Nero. [A.D. 65. 

Vestinus arrested. His extraordinary fate. 

company were thrown into a state of the most 
frightful excitement and confusion, by the 
sudden onset of this large body of armed 
men, who besieged the doors, blocked up all 
the avenues of approach, and, surrounding 
and guarding the house on every side, shut 
all the inmates in, as if they were investing 
the castle of an enemy. Certain soldiers of 
the guard were then sent in to Yestinus in 
the banqueting-room, to inform him that the 
tribune wished to speak with him on impor- 
tant business. 

The consul knew the character of Nero, 
and the feelings which the tyrant entertained 
toward him too well, and saw too clearly the 
advantage which the discovery of the conspir- 
acy gave to Nero, not to perceive at once that 
his fate was sealed ; and the action which he 
took in this frightful emergency comported 
well with his insubmissive and intractable 
character. Instead of obeying the summons 
of the tribune, he repaired immediately to a 
private apartment, summoned his physician, 
directed a bath to be prepared, ordered the 
physician to open his veins, lay down in the 
bath to promote the flowing of the blood, and 
in a few minutes ceased to breathe. 



A.D. 65.] The Conspirators. 267 

Nero is pleased. The guests at Vestinus's supper. 

The announcement of the consul's death, 
when it came to be reported to Nero, of 
course gave him great satisfaction. He con- 
tinued the guards, however, still about the 
house, keeping the guests imprisoned in the 
banqueting-room for many hours. Of course, 
during all this time, the minds of these 
guests were in a state of extreme distress and 
apprehension, inasmuch as every one of them 
must necessarily have felt in immediate dan- 
ger. When the anxiety and agitation which 
they felt, was reported to Nero, he was 
greatly entertained by it, and said that they 
were paying for their consular supper. He 
kept them in this state of suspense until 
nearly morning, and then ordered the guards 
to be withdrawn. 

The number of victims who were sacrificed 
to Nero's resentment in consequence of this 
conspiracy, was very large ; so that the streets 
were filled with executions and with funeral 
processions for many days. Universal grief 
and panic prevailed, and yet no one dared 
to manifest the slightest indications of sorrow 
or of fear. The people supposed that pity for 
the sufferers, or anxiety for themselves, would 
be interpreted as proofs that they had been 



268 Nero. [A.D. 65. 



Appearances of public rejoicing. 



concerned in the conspiracy ; for multitudes 
of those who had been put to death, were 
condemned on pretexts and pretended proofs 
of the most frivolous character. Every one, 
therefore, even of those whose nearest and 
dearest friends had been killed, was com- 
pelled to assume all the appearances of ex- 
travagant joy that so wicked a plot against 
the life of so wise and excellent a prince, had 
been exposed, and the guilty devisers of it 
brought to punishment. Parents whose sons 
had been slain, and wives and children who 
had lost their husbands and fathers, were 
thus compelled to unite in the congratulations 
and expressions of joy which were every- 
where addressed to the emperor. Proces- 
sions were formed, addresses were made, sac- 
rifices were offered, games, spectacles, and 
illuminations without number were celebrated, 
to testify to the general rejoicing ; and thus 
the city presented all the outward appear- 
ances of universal gladness and joy, while, in 
truth, the hearts of men were everywhere 
overwhelmed with anxiety, grief, and fear. 

When at length a sufficient number of the 
citizens of Pome had been destroyed, Nero 
assembled the army, and after making an 



A.D. 65.] The Conspirators. 269 

Nero grants gifts to the army and to the people. 

address to the troops on the subject of the 
conspiracy, and on his happy escape from the 
danger, he divided an immense sum of money 
from the public treasury among the soldiers, 
so as to give a very considerable largess to 
each man. He also distributed among them 
a vast amount of provisions from the public 
granaries. This act, and the connection be- 
tween Nero and the troops which it illustrates, 
explain what would otherwise seem an in- 
scrutable mystery, namely, how it can be 
possible for one man to bring the immense 
population of such an empire as that of ancient 
Eome so entirely under his power, that any 
number of the most prominent and influential 
of the citizens shall be siezed and beheaded, 
or thrust through the heart with swords and 
daggers at a word or a nod from him. The 
explanation is, the army. Give to the single 
tyrant one or two hundred thousand desper- 
adoes, well banded together, and completely 
armed, under a compact between them by 
which he says, " Help me to control, to domi- 
neer over, and to plunder the industrial 
classes of society, and I will give you a large 
share of the spoil," and the work is very easy. 
The governments that have existed in the 



270 Neeo. [A.D. 65. 

Nature of despotic government. Secret of their power. 

world have generally been formed on this 
plan. They have been simply vast armies 
authorized to collect their own pay by the 
systematic plunder of the millions whose 
peaceful industry feeds and clothes the world. 
The remedy which mankind is now beginning 
to discover and apply is equally simple. The 
millions who do the work are learning to keep 
the arms in their own hands, and to forbid 
the banding together of masses of troops for 
the purpose of exalting pride and cruelty to 
a position of absolute and irresponsible power. 
In Nero's case, so great was the awe which 
the terrible power of the Roman legions in- 
spired, that even the Senate bowed humbly 
before it, and joined in the general adulation 
of the hated tyrant. They decreed oblations 
and public thanksgivings ; they erected new 
temples to express their gratitude to the gods 
for so signal a deliverance ; they instituted 
new games and festivities to express the gene- 
ral joy, and erected statues and monuments 
in honor of those who had contributed to the 
discovery of the plot. The knife or dagger 
which Milichus had produced as the one by 
which Nero was to have been slain, was pre- 
served as a sacred relic. A suitable inscrip- 



A.D. 65.] The Conspiratoes. 271 

Doubt in respect to Piso's conspiracy. 

tion was placed upon it, and it was deposited, 
with all solemnity, in one of the temples of 
the city, there to remain a memorial of the 
event for all future generations. In a word, 
the tyrant's escape from death called forth 
all the outward manifestations of joy which 
could have been deserved by the greatest 
public benefactor. 

And yet, notwithstanding all this, such was 
the estimate which public sentiment really 
entertained of the true character of Nero, that 
it was considered extremely doubtful at the 
time, and has, in fact, been so considered ever 
since, whether there ever was any conspiracy 
at all. It was very extensively believed that 
the whole pretended discovery of the plot was 
an ingenious device on the part of Nero, to 
furnish him with plausible pretexts for de- 
stroying a great number of men who were 
personally obnoxious to him. And were it 
not almost impossible to believe that such 
monstrous wickedness and tyranny as that of 
Nero could riot so long over Romans without 
arousing them to some desperate attempts to 
destroy him, we might ourselves adopt this 
view, and suppose that this celebrated plot 
was wholly a fabrication. 



272 Neeo. [A.D. 65. 

Nero becomes more depraved and abandoned than ever. 



Chapter XII. 
The Expedition into Greece. 

AS the excitement which had been pro- 
duced by the discovery, real or pre- 
tended, of Piso's conspiracy, and by the innu- 
merable executions which were attendant 
upon it, passed away, Nero returned to his 
usual mode of life, and in fact abandoned 
himself to the indulgence of his brutal pro- 
pensities and passions more recklessly than 
ever. He spent his days in sloth, and his 
nights in rioting and carousals, and was rap- 
idly becoming an object of general contempt 
and detestation. The only ambition which 
seemed to animate him was to excel, or rather 
to have the credit of excelling, as a player 
and singer on the public stage. 

Not long after the period of the conspiracy 
described in the last two chapters, and when 
the excitement connected with it had in some 
measure subsided, the attention of the public 
began to be turned toward a great festival, the 
time for which was then approaching. This 



A.D. 65.] The Expedition. 273 



Nero appears on the public stage. 



festival was celebrated with spectacles and 
games of various kinds, which were called 
the quinquennial games, from the circum- 
stance that the period for the celebration of 
them recurred once in five years. A princi- 
pal part of the performances on these occa- 
sions consisted of contests for prizes, which 
were offered for those who chose to compete 
for them. Some of these prizes were for those 
who excelled in athletic exercises, and in 
feats of strength and dexterity, while others 
were for singers and dancers, and other per- 
formers on the public stage. Nero could not 
resist the temptation to avail himself of this 
grand occasion for the display of his powers, 
and he prepared to appear among the other 
actors and mountebanks as a competitor for 
the theatrical prizes. 

Performers on the public stage were re- 
garded in ancient days much as they are 
now. They were applauded, flattered, ca- 
ressed, and most extravagantly paid; but 
after all they formed a social class distinct 
from all others, and of a very low grade. 
Just as now great public singers are rewarded 
sometimes with the most princely revenues, — 
not twice or three times, but ten times per- 

S 



274 Neeo. [A J). 65. 

Estimation in which players were held. 

haps the amount ever paid to the highest 
ministers of state, — and receive the most flat- 
tering attentions from the highest classes of 
society, and are followed by crowds in the 
public streets, and enter cities escorted by 
grand processions, while yet there is scarce a 
respectable citizen of the better class who 
would not feel himself demeaned at seeing 
his son or his daughter on the stage by their 
side. 

In the same manner public sentiment was 
such in the city of Rome, in Nero's day, that 
to see the chief military magistrate of the 
commonwealth publicly performing on the 
stage, and entering into an eager competition 
with the singing men and women, the low 
comedians, the dancers, the buffoons, and 
other such characters, that figured there, was 
a very humiliating spectacle. In fact, when 
the time for the quinquennial celebration ap- 
proached, the government attempted to pre- 
vent the necessity of the emperor's actual ap- 
pearing upon the stage, by passing in the 
Senate, among other decrees relating to the 
celebrations, certain votes awarding honorary 
crowns and prizes to Nero, by anticipation, — 
thus acknowledging him to be the first with- 



A.D. 65.] The Expedition. 275 

Action of the Senate. Theatrical excitements. 

out requiring the test of actual competition. 
But this did not satisfy Nero. In fact, the 
honor of being publicly proclaimed victor was 
not probably the chief allurement which at- 
tracted him. He wished to enjoy the excite- 
ment and the pleasure of the contest, — to see 
the vast audience assembled before him, and 
held in charmed and enraptured attention by 
his performance ; and to listen to and enjoy 
the triumphant grandeur of the applause 
which rolled and reverberated in the great 
Roman amphitheaters on such occasions with 
the sound of thunder. In a word it was the 
vanity of personal display, rather than ambi- 
tion for an honorable distinction, that con- 
stituted the motive which actuated him. 

He consequently disregarded the honorary 
awards which the Senate had decreed him, 
and insisted on actually appearing on the 
stage. His first performance was the reciting 
of a poem which he had composed. The 
poem was received, of course, with unbounded 
applause. Afterward he appeared on the 
stage in competition with the harpers and 
other musical performers. The populace ap- 
plauded his efforts with the greatest enthu- 
siasm, while the more respectable citizens 



276 Nero. [A.D. 66. 

Humiliating demeanor of the emperor. 

were silent, or spoke to each other in secret 
murmurs of discontent and disapproval. 
There were a great many rules and restric- 
tions which the candidates in these contests 
were required to observe ; and though they 
were all proper enough for the class of men 
for whom they were intended, were yet such 
that the emperor, in subjecting himself to 
them, placed himself in a very low and de- 
graded position, so as to become an object of 
ridicule and contempt. For example, after 
coming to the end of a performance on the 
harp, he would advance to the front of the 
stage, and there, after the manner customary 
among the players of that day, would kneel 
down in an imploring attitude, with his hands 
raised, as if humbly soliciting a favorable sen- 
tence from the audience, as his judges, and 
tremblingly waiting their decision. This, 
considering that the suppliant performer was 
the greatest potentate on earth, officially re- 
sponsible for the government of half the world, 
and the audience before whom he was kneel- 
ing was mainly composed of the lowest rabble 
of the city, seemed to every respectable Ro- 
man, absurd and ridiculous to the last degree. 
Nevertheless, the fame of these exploits 



A.D. 66.] The Expedition. 277 

Rewards and honors conferred upon Nero. 

performed by Nero as a public actor, spread 
gradually throughout the empire, and the 
subject attracted special attention in the cities 
of Greece, where games and public spectacles 
of every kind were celebrated with the great- 
est pomp and splendor. Several of these 
cities sent deputations to Rome, with crowns 
and garlands for the emperor, which they had 
decreed to him in honor of the skill and su- 
periority which he had displayed in the his- 
trionic art. Nero was extremely gratified at 
having such honors conferred upon him. He 
received the deputations which brought these 
tokens, with great pomp and parade, as if they 
had been embassadors from sovereign princes 
or states, sent to transact business of the most 
momentous concern. He gave them audience, 
in fact, before all others, and entertained 
them with feasts and spectacles, and conferred 
upon them every other mark of public con- 
sideration and honor. On one occasion, at a 
feast to which he had invited such a company 
of embassadors, one of them asked him to fa- 
vor them with a song. The emperor at once 
complied, and sang a song for the entertain- 
ment of the company at the table. He was 
rapturously applauded, and was so delighted 



278 Nero. [A.D. 66. 

The Olympic games. The plain. Rules. 

with the enthusiasm which his performance 
awakened, as to exclaim that the Greeks were, 
after all, the only people that really had a 
taste for music ; none but they, he said, could 
understand or appreciate a good song. 

The most renowned of all the celebrations 
of the ancient Greeks were the Olympic 
games. These games constituted a grand 
national festival, which was held once in four 
years on a plain in the western part of the 
Peloponnesus, called the Olympian Plain. 
This plain was but little more than a mile in 
extent, and was bordered on one side by 
rocky hills, and on the other by the waters of 
a river. Here suitable structures were erected 
for the exhibition of the spectacles and games, 
and for the accommodation of the spectators, 
and when the period for the celebrations ar- 
rived, immense multitudes assembled from 
every part of Greece to witness the solemni- 
ties. The spectators, however, were all men ; 
for with the exception of a few priestesses who 
had certain official duties to perform, no fe- 
males were allowed to be present. The pun- 
ishment for an attempt to evade this law was 
death ; N for if any woman attempted to witness 
the scene in disguise, the law was that she 



A.D. 66.] The Expedition. 279 

Preliminary arrangements of the Olympic games. 

was to be seized, if detected, and hurled down 
a neighboring precipice, to be killed by the 
fall. It is said, however, that only one case 
of such detection ever occurred, and in that 
case the woman was pardoned in considera- 
tion of the fact that her father, her brothers, 
and her son had all been victors in the games. 
The games continued for five days. The 
general arrangements were made, and the 
umpires were appointed, by the government 
of Elis, which was the state in which the 
Olympian plain was situated. There was a 
gymnasium in the vicinity, where those who 
intended to enter the lists as competitors were 
accustomed to put themselves in training. 
This training occupied nearly a year, and for 
thirty days previous to the public exhibition 
the exercises were conducted at this gymna- 
sium in the same manner and form as at the 
games themselves. There was a large and 
regularly organized police provided to pre- 
serve order, and umpires appointed with great 
formality, to decide the contests and make 
the awards. These umpires were inducted 
into office by the most solemn oaths. They 
bound themselves by these oaths to give just 
and true decisions without fear or favor. 



280 Nero. [A.D. 66. 

V&rious contests and spectacles at the Olympic games. 

The festival was opened, when the time 
arrived, in the evening, by the offering of sac- 
rifices, — the services being conducted in the 
most imposing and solemn manner. On the 
following morning at daybreak the games 
and contests began. These consisted of races 
— in chariots, on horseback, and on foot, — the 
runners being in the latter case sometimes 
dressed lightly, and sometimes loaded with 
heavy armor; — of matches in leaping, wrest- 
ling, boxing, and throwing the discus ; — and 
finally, of musical and poetical performances 
of various kinds. To obtain the prize in any 
of these contests was considered throughout 
the whole Grecian world as an honor of the 
highest degree. 

The period for the celebration of these 
games began to draw nigh, as it happened, 
not long after the time when the deputations 
from Greece came to Nero with the compli- 
ments and crowns decreed to him in token of 
their admiration of his public performances at 
Rome, — and it is not at all surprising that his 
attention and interest were strongly awakened 
by the approach of so renowned a festival. 
In short he resolved to go to Greece, and dis- 
play his powers before the immense and dis- 



A.D. 66.] The Expedition. 281 

Nero sets out for Greece. His retinue. 

tinguishecl audiences that were to assemble on 
the Olympic plains. 

He accordingly organized a very large reti- 
nue of attendants and followers, and prepared 
to set out on his journey. This retinue was 
in numbers quite an army; but in character 
it was a mere troop of actors, musicians and 
buffoons. It was made up almost wholly of 
people connected in various ways with the 
stage, so that the baggage which followed in 
its train, instead of being formed of arms and 
munitions of war, as was usual when a great 
Roman commander had occasion to pass out 
of Italy, consisted of harps, fiddles, masks, 
buskins, and such other stage property as was 
in use in those times, — while the company 
itself was formed almost entirely of come- 
dians, singers, dancers, and wrestlers, with an 
immense retinue of gay and dissipated men 
and women, who exemplified every possible 
stage of moral debasement and degradation. 
With this company Nero crossed to the east- 
ern shore of Italy, and there, embarking on 
board the vessels which had been prepared 
for the voyage, he sailed over the Adriatic 
sea to the shores of Greece. 

He landed at Cassiope, a town in the north- 



282 Nero. [A.D. 66. 

Nero's progress through Greece. Crowds of auditors. 

ern part of the island of Corcyra. Here there 
was a temple to Jupiter, and the first of Nero's 
exploits was to go there and sing, being im- 
patient, it would seem, to give the people of 
Greece a specimen of his powers immediately 
on landing. After this he passed over to the 
continent, and thence advanced into the heart 
of Greece, playing, singing, and acting in all 
the cities through which he passed. As there 
were yet some months to elapse before the pe- 
riod for, celebrating the Olympic games, Nero 
had ample time for making this tour. He was 
of course everywhere received with the most 
unbounded applause, for of course those only, 
in general, who were most pleased with such 
amusements, and were most inclined to ap- 
prove of Nero's exhibiting himself as a per- 
former, came together in the assemblies which 
convened to hear him. Thus it happened that 
the virtuous, the cultivated, and the refined, 
remained at their homes ; while all the idle, 
reckless, and dissolute spirits of the land 
flocked in crowds to the entertainments which 
their imperial visitor offered them. These 
men, of course, considered it quite a triumph 
for them that so distinguished a potentate 
should take an active part in ministering to 



A.D. 66.~] The Expedition. 283 

Nero is received with great applause. 

their pleasures ; and thus wherever Nero went 
he was sure to be attended by crowds, and 
his performances, whether skillful or not, could 
not fail of being extravagantly extolled in 
conversation, and of eliciting in the theaters 
thunders of applause. The consequence was 
that Nero was delighted with the enthusiasm 
which his performances seemed everywhere 
to awaken. To be thus received and thus 
applauded in the cities of Greece, seemed to 
satisfy his highest ambition. 

It has always been considered a very extra- 
ordinary proof of mental and moral degrada- 
tion on the part of Nero, that he could thus 
descend from the exalted sphere of responsi- 
bility and duty to which his high official sta- 
tion properly consigned him, in order to min- 
gle in such scenes and engage in such contests 
as were exhibited in the ordinary theaters and 
circuses in Greece. It is however not so sur- 
prising that he should have been willing to 
appear as a competitor at the Olympic games : 
so prominent were these games above all the 
other athletic and military celebrations of that 
age, and so great was the value attached to the 
honor of a victory obtained in them. There 
was, it is true, no value in the prize itself, 



284 Nero. [AD. 66. 

The crown of olive leaves. Ceremonies. 

that was bestowed upon the victors. There 
was no silver cup, or golden crown, or sum of 
money staked upon the issue. The only di- 
rect award was a crown of olive leaves, which, 
at the close of the contest, was placed upon 
the head of the victor. Everything pertain- 
ing to this crown was connected with the 
most imposing and peculiar ceremonies. The 
leaves from which the garland was made were 
obtained from a certain sacred olive-tree, 
which grew in a consecrated grove in Olym- 
pia. The tree itself had been originally 
brought, it was said, from the country of the 
Hyperboreans, by Hercules, and planted in 
Olympia, where it was sacredly preserved to 
furnish garlands for the victors in the games. 
The leaves were cut from the tree by a boy 
chosen for the purpose. He gathered the 
leaves by means of a golden sickle, which was 
set apart expressly to this use. When the 
time arrived for the crowning of the victor, 
the candidate was brought forward in presence 
of a vast concourse of spectators, and placed 
upon a tripod, which was originally formed 
of bronze, but in subsequent ages was wrought 
in ivory and gold. Branches of palm-trees, 
the usual symbols of victory, were placed in 



A.D. 66.] The Expedition. 285 

Sacrifices and festivities. Nero at Olympia. 

his hands. His name and that of his father 
and of the country whence he came, were 
proclaimed with great ceremony by the her- 
alds. The crown was then placed upon his 
head, and the festival ended with proces- 
sions and sacrifices and a public banquet, 
given in honor of the occasion. On his re- 
turn to his own country, the victor entered 
the capital by a triumphal procession, and 
was usually rewarded there by immunities and 
privileges of the most important character. 

At length the time arrived for the celebra- 
tion of the Olympic games, and Nero repaired 
to the spot, following the vast throngs that 
were proceeding thither from every part of 
Greece, and there entered into competition 
with all the common singers and players of 
the time. The prize for excellence in music 
was awarded to him. It was, however, gen- 
erally understood that the judges were bribed 
to decide in his favor. Nero entered as a 
competitor, too, in the chariot race ; and here 
he was successful in winning the prize ; 
though in this case it was decreed to him in 
plain and open violation of all rule. He un- 
dertook to drive ten horses in this race ; but 
he found the team too much for him to con- 



286 Neeo. [A.D. 65. 

The chariot race. Nero receives the prizes. 

trol. The horses became unmanageable ; Nero 
was thrown out of his carriage and was so 
much hurt that he could not finish the race at 
all. He, however, insisted that accidents and 
casualties were not to be taken into the ac- 
count, and that inasmuch as he should cer- 
tainly have outran his competitors if he had 
not been prevented by misfortune, he claimed 
that the judges should award him the prize. 
Greatly to his delight the judges did so. It 
is true they were bound by the most solemn 
oaths to make just and true decisions ; but it 
has been seldom found in the history of the 
world that official oaths constitute any serious 
barrier against the demands or encroachments 
of emperors or kings. 

"When the games were ended IsTero con- 
ferred very rich rewards upon all the judges. 

These successes at the Olympic games, 
nominal and empty as they really were, seem- 
ed to have inflamed the emperor's vanity and 
ambition more than ever. Instead of return- 
ing to Home he commenced another tour 
through the heart of Greece, singing and 
playing in all the cities where he went, and 
challenging all the most distinguished actors 



A.D. 66.] The Expedition. 287 



Nero sends despatches to Rome. 



and performers to meet him and contend with 
him for prizes. 

Of course the prizes were always awarded 
to Nero on this tour, as they had been at the 
Olympic games. Nero sent home regular 
dispatches after each of his performances, to 
inform the Roman Senate of his victories, just 
as former emperors had been accustomed to 
send military bulletins to announce the prog- 
ress of their armies, and the conquests which 
they had gained in battle ; and with a degree 
of vanity and folly which seems almost incred- 
ible, he called upon the Senate to institute 
religious celebrations and sacrifices in Rome, 
and great public processions, in order to sig- 
nalize and commemorate these great successes, 
and to express the gratitude of the people to 
the gods for having vouchsafed them. Not 
satisfied w r ith expecting this parade of public 
rejoicing in Rome, he called upon the Senate 
to ordain that similar services should be held 
in all the cities and towns throughout the 
empire. 

During the visit of Nero to Greece, he en- 
gaged in one undertaking which might be 
denominated a useful enterprise, though he 
managed it with such characteristic imbecil- 



288 Neeo. [A.D.66. 

His plan for cutting through the Isthmns of Corinth. 

ity and folly, that it ended, as might have 
been foreseen, in a miserable failure. The 
plan which he conceived, was to cut through 
the Isthmus of Corinth, so as to open a ship 
communication between the Ionian and the 
^Egean seas. Such a canal, he thought, 
would save for many vessels the long and 
dangerous voyage around the Peloponnesus, 
and thus prevent many of the wrecks which 
then annually took place on the shores of the 
Peninsula, and which were often attended 
with the destruction of much property and of 
many lives. 

The plan might thus have been a very good 
one, had any proper and efficient means been 
adopted for carrying it into execution; but 
in all that he did in this respect, Nero seems 
to have looked no farther than to the perform- 
ance of pompous and empty ceremonies in 
commencing the work. He convened a great 
public assembly on the ground J\ He enter- 
tained this assembly with spectacles and 
shows. He then placed himself at the head 
of his life-guards, and, after a speech of great 
promise and pretension, he advanced at the 
head of a procession, singing and dancing by 
the way, to the place where the first ground 



A.D. 66.] The Expedition. 289 

Breaking ground. The golden pick-axe. 

was to be broken. Here lie made three 
strokes with a golden pick-axe, which had 
been provided for the occasion, and putting 
the earth which he had loosened into a 
basket-, he carried it away to a short distance, 
and threw it out upon the ground. This 
ceremony was meant for the commencement 
of the canal ; and when it was over, the 
company dispersed, and Nero was escorted 
by his guards back to the city of Corinth, 
which lay at a few miles' distance from the 
scene. 

Nothing more was ever done. Nero issued 
orders, it is true, that all the criminals, con- 
victs, and prisoners in Greece, should be 
transported to the Isthmus, and set to work 
upon this canal ; and some Jewish captives 
were actually employed there for a time ; 
but, for some reason or other, nothing was 
done. The actual work was never seriously 
undertaken. 

In the mean time, Nero had left the gov- 
ernment at Rome in the hands of a certain 
ignoble favorite, named Helius, who, being 
placed in command of the army during his 
master's absence, held the lives and fortunes 
of all the inhabitants at his supreme disposal, 

T 



290 Nero. [A.D. 66. 

Helius calls upon Nero to return to Rome. 

and, as might have been expected, he pur- 
sued such a career of cruelty and oppression, 
in his attempts to overawe and subject those 
who were under his power, that a universal 
feeling of hostility and hatred was awakened 
against him. Things at last assumed so 
alarming an attitude, that Helius was terri- 
fied in his turn, and at length he began to 
send for Nero to come home. Nero at first 
paid no attention to these requests. The 
danger, however, increased ; the crisis be- 
came extremely imminent, so that a general 
insurrection was anticipated, Helius sent 
messengers after messengers to Nero, implor- 
ing him to return, if he wished to save him- 
self from ruin ; — but all the answer that he 
could obtain from Nero was, that, if Helius 
truly loved him, he would not envy him the 
glory that he was acquiring in Greece ; but, 
instead of hastening his return, would rather 
wish that he should come back worthy of 
himself, after having fully accomplished his 
victories. At last Helius, growing desperate 
in view of the impending danger, left Rome, 
and, traveling with all possible dispatch, 
night and day, came to Nero in Greece, and 
there made such statements and disclosures 



A.D. 66.] The Expedition. 291 

Nero returns. His train. His prizes. 

in respect to the condition of things at Rome, 
that Nero at length reluctantly concluded to 
return. 

He accordingly set out in grand state on 
his journey westward, escorted by his body-^ 
guard, and with his motley and innumerable 
horde of singers, dancers, poets, actors, and 
mountebanks in his train. He brought with 
him the prizes which he had won in the vari- 
ous cities of Greece. The number of these 
prizes, it was said, was more than eighteen 
hundred. On his way through Greece, when 
about to return to Rome, he went to Delphi, 
to consult the sacred oracle there, in respect 
to his future fortunes. The reply of the 
Pythoness was, "Beware of seventy-three" 
This answer gave ]S~ero great satisfaction and 
pleasure. It meant, he had no doubt, that 
he had no danger to fear until he should have 
attained to the age of seventy-three ; and as 
he was yet not quite thirty, the response of 
the oracle seemed to put so far away the evil 
day, that he thought he might dismiss it from 
his mind altogether. So he repaid the oracle 
for the flattering prediction with most mag- 
nificent presents, and pursued his journey to- 
ward Rome with a mind quite at ease. 



292 Nero. [A.D. 66. 

His voyage. Danger of shipwreck. Journey to Rome. 

The ships in which he embarked to cross 
the Adriatic on his return to Italy encountered 
a terrible storm, by which they were dis- 
persed, and many of them were destroyed. 
Nero himself had a very narrow escape, as 
the ship which he was in came very near be- 
ing lost. To see him in this danger seems 
greatly to have pleased some of his attend- 
ants, for so imperious and cruel was his tem- 
per, that he was generally hated by all who 
came under his power. These men hated him 
so intensely that they were willing, as it 
would appear, to perish themselves, for the 
pleasure of witnessing his destruction ; and in 
the extreme moments of danger they openly 
manifested this feeling. The vessel, however, 
was saved, and Nero, as soon as he landed, or- 
dered these persons all to be slain. 

On landing he gathered together the scat- 
tered remnants of his company, and organiz- 
ing a new escort, he advanced toward Rome, 
in a grand triumphal march, displaying his 
prizes and crowns in all the great cities 
through which he passed, and claiming uni- 
versal homage. When he arrived at the 
gates of Rome, he made preparations for a 
grand triumphal entry to the city, in the man- 



A.D. 66.] The Expedition. 293 



His triumphal entry into Rome. 



ner of great military conquerors. A breach 
was made in the walls for the admission of 
the procession. Nero rode in the triumphal 
chariot of Augustus, with a distinguished 
Greek harpist by his side, who wore an Olym- 
pic crown upon his head, and carried another 
crown in his hand. Before this chariot 
marched a company of eighteen hundred 
men, each of them carrying one of the crowns 
which Nero had won, with an inscription for 
the spectators to read, signifying where the 
crown had been won, the name of the empe- 
ror's competitor, the title of the song which 
he had sung, and other similar particulars. 
In this way he traversed the principal streets, 
exhibiting himself and his trophies to the 
populace, and finally when he arrived at his 
house, he entered it with great pomp and 
parade, and caused the crowns to be hung up 
upon the innumerable statues of himself 
which had been erected in the courts and 
halls of the building. Those which he valued 
most highly he placed conspicuously around 
his bed in his bedchamber, in order that they 
might be the last objects for his eyes to rest 
upon at night, and the first to greet his view 
in the morning. 



294 Nero. [A.D. 66. 

His proceedings. He continues the training of his voice. 

As soon as lie became established in Rome 
again, lie began to form new plans for devel- 
oping his powers and capacities as a musi- 
cian, in the hope of gaining still higher tri- 
umphs than those to which he had already 
attained. Far from giving his time and at- 
tention to the public business of the empire, 
he devoted himself with new zeal and enthu- 
siasm to the cultivation of his art. In doing 
this it was necessary, according to the cus- 
toms and usages in respect to the training of 
musicians that prevailed in those days, that 
he should submit to rules and exercises most 
absurd and degrading to one holding such a 
station as his ; and as accounts of his mode 
of life circulated among the community, he 
became an object of general ridicule and con- 
tempt. In order to strengthen his lungs and 
improve his voice he used to lie on his back 
with a plate of lead upon his chest, that the 
lungs, working under such a burden, might 
acquire strength by the effort. He took pow- 
erful medicines, such as were supposed in 
those days to act upon the system in such 
a manner as to produce clearness and reso- 
nance in the tones of the voice. He subjected 
himself to the most rigid rules of diet, — and 



A.D. 66.] The Expedition. 295 

Tho Phocascus. Public performances. 

gave up the practice of addressing the senate 
and the army, which the Roman emperors 
often had occasion to do, for fear that speak- 
ing so loud might strain his voice and injure 
the sweetness of its tones. He had a special 
officer in his household, called his Phonascus, 
meaning his voice-keeper. This officer was 
to watch him at all times, caution him against 
speaking too loud or too fast, — prescribe for 
him, and in every way take care that his 
voice received no detriment. During all 
this time Nero was continually performing in 
public, and though his performances were 
protracted and tedious to the last degree, all 
the Roman nobility were compelled always to 
attend them, under pain of his horrible dis- 
pleasure. 

As Nero went on thus in the career which 
he had chosen, — neglecting altogether the 
affairs of government, and giving himself up 
more and more every year to the most ex- 
pensive dissipation; his finances became at 
length greatly involved, and he was com- 
pelled to resort to every possible form of 
extortion, in order to raise the money that he 
required. His pecuniary embarrassments be- 
came, at length, very perplexing, and they 



296 Nero. [A.D. 66. 

Pecuniary embarassments. Bessus's story. 

were finally very much increased by the ex- 
traordinary folly which he displayed in giv- 
ing credence to the dreams and promises of 
a certain adventurer who came to him from 
Africa. The name of this man was Bessus. 
lie was a native of Carthage. He came, at 
one time, to Rome, and having contrived, by 
means of presents and bribes which he of- 
fered to the officers of Nero's household, to 
obtain an audience of the emperor, he in- 
formed him that he had intelligence of the 
highest importance to communicate, which 
was, that on his estate in Africa, there was a 
large cavern, in which was stored an immense 
treasure. This treasure consisted, he said, 
of vast heaps of golden ingots, rude and 
shapeless in form, but composed of pure and 
precious metal. The cavern, he said, which 
contained these stores, was very spacious, and 
the gold lay piled in it in heaps, and some- 
times in solid columns, towering to a pro- 
digious height. These treasures had been 
deposited there, he said, by Dido, the ancient 
Carthaginian queen, and they had remained 
there so long, that all knowledge of them had 
been lost. They had been reserved, in a 
word, for Nero, and were all now at his dis- 



A.D. 66.] The Expedition. 297 

Nero sends to Egypt for the treasure. 

posal, ready to be brought out and employed 
in promoting the glory and magnificence of 
his reign. 

Nero readi]y gave credit to this story, and 
inasmuch as in the exuberance of his exulta- 
tion he made known this wonderful discovery 
to those around him, the tidings of it soon 
spread throughout the city, and produced the 
most intense excitement among all classes. 
!N"ero immediately began to fit out an expedi- 
tion to proceed to Africa, and bring the treas- 
ure home. Galleys were equipped to convey 
it, and a body of troops was designated to es- 
cort it, and suitable officers appointed to pro- 
ceed with Bessus to Carthage, and superintend 
the transportation of the metal. These prep- 
arations necessarily required some time, and 
during the interval Bessus w T as of course the 
object at Rome of universal attention and re- 
gard. ISTero himself, finding that he was 
about to enter upon the possession of such in- 
exhaustible treasures, dismissed all concern in 
respect to his finances, and launched out into 
wilder extravagance than ever. He raised 
money for the present moment, by assigning 
shares in the treasure at exorbitant rates of 



298 Neeo. [A.D. 66. 

His disappointment. The dream. 

discount, and thus borrowed and expended 
with the most unbounded profusion. 

At length the expedition sailed for Car- 
thage, taking Bessus with them, — but all 
search for the cavern, when they arrived, was 
unavailing. It proved that all the evidence 
which Bessus had of the existence of the cave, 
and of the heaps of gold contained in it, was 
derived from certain remarkable dreams which 
he had had, — and though Nero's commission- 
ers dug into the ground most faithfully in 
every place on the estate which the dreams 
had indicated, no treasure, and not even the 
cavern, could ever be found. 



A.D. 66.] Nero's End. 299 

Galba. His history. His province. 



Chapter XIII. 
Nero's End. 

THE successor of Nero in the line of Ro- 
man emperors, was Galba. Galba, though 
a son of one of the most illustrious Roman 
families, was born in Spain, and he was about 
forty years older than Nero, being now over 
seventy, while Nero was yet but thirty years 
of age. 

During the whole course of his life, Galba 
had been a very distinguished commander, 
and had risen from one post of influence and 
honor to another, until he became one of the 
most considerable personages in the state. 
Nero at length appointed him to the command 
of a very large and important province in 
Spain. At this station Galba remained some 
years, and he was here, attending regularly to 
the duties of his government, at the time 
when Nero returned from his expedition into 
Greece. Galba himself, and all the other 
governors around him, felt the same indigna- 
tion at Nero's cruelties and crimes, and the 



300 Neeo. [A.D. 66. 

Revolt of Vindex. Embassadors sent to Galba. 

same contempt for his low and degrading 
vanity and folly, that prevailed so generally 
at Rome. In fact, feelings of exasperation 
and hatred against the tyrant, began to ex- 
tend universally throughout the empire. The 
people in every quarter, in fact, seemed ripe 
for insurrection. 

While things were in this state, a messen- 
ger arrived one day at Galba's court, from a 
certain chieftain of the Gauls, named Julius 
Yindex. This messenger came to announce 
to Galba that Yindex had revolted against the 
Roman government in Gaul. He declared, 
however, that it was only Nerd*s power that 
Yindex intended to resist, and promised that 
if Galba would himself assume the supreme 
command, Yindex would acknowledge alle- 
giance to him, and would do all in his power 
to promote his cause. He said, moreover, 
that such was the detestation in which Nero 
was universally held, that there was no doubt 
that the whole empire would sustain Galba in 
effecting such a revolution, if he would once 
raise his standard. At the same time that 
this messenger came from Yindex, another 
came from the Roman governor of the prov- 
ince of Gaul, where Yindex resided, to inform 



A.D. 66.] Neeo-s End. 301 

Debates in the council. Galba joins Vindex. 

Galba of the revolt, and asking for a detach- 
ment of troops to assist him in putting it 
down. Galba called a council, and laid the 
subject before them. 

After some debate one of the councillors 
rose and said that there was no more danger 
in openly joining Yindex in his rebellion, 
than there was in debating, in such a council, 
what they should do. "It is just as treason- 
able," said he, "to doubt and hesitate wheth- 
er to send troops to put down the revolt, as 
it would be openly to rebel ; and Nero will so 
regard it. My counsel therefore is that, un- 
less you choose to be considered as aiding the 
revolution, you should instantly send off troops 
to put it down." 

Galba was much impressed with the wis- 
dom of this advice. He felt strongly inclined 
to favor the cause of Yindex and the rebels, 
and on further reflection he secretly deter- 
mined to join them, and to take measures for 
raising a general insurrection. He did not, 
however, make known his determination to 
any one, but dismissed the council without 
declaring what he had concluded to do. Soon 
afterward he sent out to all parts of the prov- 
ince, and ordered a general mustering of the 



302 Nero. [A.D. 67. 

News of the rebellion meets Nero at Naples. 

forces under his command, and of all that 
could be raised throughout the province, re- 
quiring them to meet at a certain appointed 
rendezvous. The army, though not openly 
informed of it, suspected what the object of 
this movement was to be, and came forward 
to the work, with the utmost alacrity and joy. 

In the mean time the tidings of Vindex's 
revolt traveled rapidly to Rome, and thence 
to Naples, where Nero was at this time per- 
forming on the public stage. Nero seemed to 
be very much delighted to hear the news. 
He supposed that the rebellion would of 
course be very easily suppressed, and that 
when it was suppressed he could make it an 
excuse for subjecting the province in which it 
had occurred to fines and confiscations that 
would greatly enrich his treasury. He was 
extremely pleased therefore at the tidings of 
the revolt, and abandoned himself to the the- 
atrical pursuits and pleasures in which he was 
engaged, more absolutely and recklessly than 
ever. 

In the mean time fresh messengers arrived 
at short intervals from Rome, to inform Nero 
of the progress of the rebellion. The news 
was that Yindex was gaining strength every 



A.D. 67.] Nero's End. 303 

The proclamation of Vindex. Nero's ire. 

day, and was issuing proclamations to the 
people calling upon them everywhere to rise 
and throw off the ignoble yoke of oppression 
which they were enduring. In these procla- 
mations the emperor was called Brazenbeard, 
and designated as a " wretched fiddler." 
These taunts excited Nero's ire. He wrote to 
the Senate at Rome calling upon them to 
adopt some measures for putting down this 
insolent rebel, and having dispatched this 
letter, he seemed to dismiss the subject from 
his mind, and turned his attention anew to 
his dancing and acting. 

His mind was, however, soon disturbed 
again, for fresh messengers continued to come, 
each bringing reports more alarming than 
those of his predecessor. The rebellion was 
evidently gaining ground. Nero was con- 
vinced that something must be done. He ac- 
cordingly broke away, though with great re- 
luctance, from his amusements at Naples, and 
proceeded to Rome. On his arrival at the 
capital he called a council of some of his prin- 
cipal ministers of state, and after a short con- 
sultation on the subject of the rebellion — in 
which, however, nothing was determined 
upon — he proceeded to produce some newly- 



304 Nero. [A.D. 67. 

Nero plans new performances. The new instruments. 

invented musical instruments which he had 
brought with him from Naples, and in which 
he was greatly interested. After showing 
and explaining these instruments to the coun- 
cilors, he promised them that he would give 
them the pleasure before long of hearing a 
performance upon them, on the stage, — 
"provided," he added jocosely, "that this 
Yindex will give me leave." 

The councilors at length withdrew, and 
Nero remained in his apartment. On retiring 
to rest, however, he found that he could not 
sleep. His thoughts were running on the 
musical instruments which he had been show- 
ing, and on the pleasure which he anticipated 
in a public performance with them. At 
length, at a very late hour, he sent for his 
councilors to come again to his apartment. 
They came, full of excitement and wonder, 
supposing that they were thus suddenly sum- 
moned on account of some new and very 
momentous tidings which had been received 
from Gaul. They found, however, that Nero 
only wished to give some farther account of 
the instruments which he had shown them, 
and to ask their opinions of certain improve- 



A.D. 67.] Neecs End. 305 

Galba joins the insurrection. Nero appalled. 

ments which had occurred to him since they 
went away. 

Nero did not, however, remain very long in 
this state of insane and stupid unconcern ; 
for on the evening of the following day a 
courier arrived from the north with the appal- 
ling intelligence that Vindex had made him- 
self master of Gaul, and that Galba, the most 
powerful general in the Roman army, had 
joined the insurrection with all the legions 
under his command, and that he was now ad- 
vancing toward Rome at the head of his 
armies with the avowed purpose of deposing 
Nero, and making himself emperor in his 
stead. 

Nero was at first absolutely stupefied at 
hearing these tidings. He remained for some 
time silent and motionless, as if made com- 
pletely senseless with consternation. When 
at length he came to himself again, he fell 
into a perfect frenzy of rage and terror. He 
overturned the supper table, tore his garments, 
threw down two valuable cups to the floor and 
broke them to pieces, and then began to dash 
his head against the wall, as if he were per- 
fectly insane. He said he was undone. No 
man had ever been so wretched. His domin- 

U 



306 Nero. [A.D. 67. 

His plans for vengeance. He is restrained. 

ions were to be seized from him while he yet 
lived, and held by an usurper ; he was utterly 
ruined and undone. 

After a little time had elapsed the agita- 
tion and excitement of his mind took another 
direction, that of furious anger against the 
generals and officers of his army, — not only 
those who had actually rebelled, but all others, 
for he was jealous and suspicious of all, and 
said that he believed that the whole army was 
engaged in the conspiracy. He was going to 
send out orders to the various provinces and 
encampments, for the assassination of great 
numbers of the officers, — such as he imagined 
might be inclined to turn against him, — and 
he would probably have done so if he had not 
been restrained by the influence of his minis- 
ters of state. He also proposed to seize and 
kill all the Gauls then in Rome, as a mode of 
taking vengeance on their countrymen for 
joining Yindex in his rebellion, and could 
scarcely be prevented from doing this by the 
urgent remonstrances of all his friends. 

After a time Nero so far recovered his self- 
possession that he began to make preparations 
for organizing an army, with the design of 
marching against the rebels. He accordingly 



A.D.67.] Neeo's End. 307 

He attempts to raise an army. Slaves. 

ordered troops to be enlisted and arms and 
ammunition to be provided, — assessing at the 
same time heavy taxes upon the people of 
Home to defray the expense. All these 
arrangements, however, only increased the, 
general discontent. The people saw that the 
preparations which the emperor was making 
were wholly inadequate to the crisis, and that 
no efficient military operations could ever 
come from them. In the first place, he could 
obtain no troops, for no men fit for soldiers 
were willing to enlist, — and so he undertook 
to supply the deficiency by requiring every 
master of slaves to send him a certain number 
of his bondmen, and these bondmen he freed 
and then enrolled them in his army, in lieu 
of soldiers. Moreover, in making provision 
for the wants of his army, instead of devoting 
his chief attention to securing a sufficiency of 
arms, ammunition, military stores, and other 
such supplies as were required in preparing 
for an efficient campaign, he seemed only in- 
terested in getting together actors, dancers, 
musical instruments, and dresses for perform- 
ers on the public stage. In excuse for this 
course of procedure, Nero said frankly that 
he did not expect that his expedition would 



308 Neko. [A.D.67. 

Nero's hopeless condition. His plans for escape. 

lead to any important military operations. As 
soon as he reached the rebel armies his inten- 
tion was, he said, to throw himself upon their 
sense of justice and their loyalty. He would 
acknowledge whatever had been wrong in his 
past government, and promise solemnly that 
his sway in future should be more mild and 
beneficent; and he had no doubt that thus 
the whole disturbance would be quelled. The 
revolted troops would at once return to their 
duty, and the musical and theatrical prepa- 
rations which he was making were intended 
for a series of grand festivities to celebrate 
the reconciliation. 

Of course such insane and hopeless folly as 
this awakened a sentiment of universal con- 
tempt and indignation among the people of 
Rome. The greatest excitement and confu- 
sion prevailed throughout the city ; and, as is 
usual in times of public panic, money and 
provisions were hid away by those who pos* 
sessed them, in secret hoards ; and this soon 
occasioned a great scarcity of food. The city, 
in fact, was threatened with famine. In the 
midst of the alarm and anxiety which this 
state of things occasioned, two ships arrived 
from Egypt, at Ostia, and the news produced 



A.D. 67.] Nero's End. 309 

The arrival of the cargoes of sand from Egypt. 

a general rejoicing, — it being supposed, of 
course, that the ships were laden with corn. 
It proved, however, that there was no corn on 
board. Instead of food for the metropolis, 
the cargo consisted of sand, intended to form 
the arena of some of the emperor's amphi- 
theaters, for the gladiators and wrestlers to 
stand upon, in contending. This incident 
seemed to fill the cnp of public indignation 
to the brim ; and, as news arrived just at this 
time that the rebellion had extended into 
Germany, and that all the legions in the 
German provinces had gone over to Galba, 
Nero's power began to be considered at an 
end. Tumults prevailed everywhere through- 
out the city, and assemblies were held, threat- 
ening open defiance to the authority of the 
emperor, and declaring the readiness of the 
people to acknowledge Galba so soon as he 
should arrive. 

ISTero was now more terrified than ever. 
He knew not what to do. He fled from his 
palace, and sought a retreat in certain gar- 
dens near — acting in this, however, under the 
influence of a blind and instinctive fear, rath- 
er than from any rational hope of securing 
his safety by seeking such a place of refuge. 



310 Nero. [A.D. 67. 

Nero proposes to fly from Egypt. His distraction and terror. 

In fact, he was now perfectly distracted with 
terror. He procured some poison before he 
left his palace, and carried it in a small golden 
box with him to the gardens ; but he had not 
strength or resolution to take it. He then 
conceived of the plan of flying from Rome 
altogether. He would go at once to Ostia, 
he said, and there embark on board a ship 
and sail for Egypt, where, it might be sup- 
posed, he would be out of the reach of his 
enemies. He asked his officers and attend- 
ants if they would accompany him in this 
flight. But they refused to go. 

Then he began to talk of another plan. He 
would go and meet G-alba as a suppliant, and, 
falling upon his knees before the conqueror, 
would implore him to spare his life. Or he 
would go into the Roman Forum, and make 
a humble and supplicatory address to the 
people there, imploring their forgiveness for 
r his cruelties and crimes, and solemnly prom- 
ising never to be guilty of such excesses 
again, if they would pardon and protect him. 
The by-standers told him that such a proceed- 
ing was wholly out of the question ; for if he 
were to go forth for such a purpose from his 
retreat, the people were in such a frenzy of 



A.D. 67.] Nero's End. 311 

He sinks into hopeless despair. The night. 

excitement against him, that they would tear 
him to pieces before he could reach the Ros- 
tra. In a word, the distracted thoughts of 
the wretched criminal turned this way and 
that, in the wild agitation with which re- 
morse and terror filled his mind, vainly seek- 
ing some way of escape from the awful 
dangers which were circling and narrowing 
so rapidly around him. There was, in fact, 
no hope now left for him — no refuge, no 
protection, no possibility of escape ; and so, 
after suddenly seizing, and as suddenly aban- 
doning, one impracticable scheme after an- 
other, his mind became wholly bewildered, 
and he sank down, at length, into a condition 
of blank and hopeless despair. 

Although the insurrection had become very 
general in the provinces, the troops in the 
city, consisting chiefly of the emperor's 
guards, yet remained faithful ; and now as 
the night was coming on, they were stationed 
as usual at their respective posts in various 
parts of the city and at the palace gates. 
]STero retired to rest. He found, however, that 
he could not sleep. At midnight he rose, 
and came forth from his apartment. He was 
surprised to find that there was no sentinel at 



312 Neeo. [A.D. 67. 

He is deserted by his guards. He calls for a gladiator. 

the door. On farther examination he found 
to his amazement that the palace guards had 
been wholly withdrawn. He was thunder- 
struck at making this discovery. He re- 
turned into the palace and aroused some of 
the domestics, and then went forth with them 
to the residences of some of his chief minis- 
ters, who resided near, to ask for help. He 
could, however, nowhere gain admission. He 
found the houses all closely shut up, and by 
all his knocking at the doors he could get no 
answer from any persons within. He then 
came back in great distress and alarm to his 
own apartment. He found that it had been 
broken into during the short time that he had 
been gone, and rifled of every thing valuable 
that it contained. Even his golden box of 
poison had been carried away. In a word the 
great sovereign of half the world found that 
he had been abandoned by all his adherents, 
and left in a condition of utter and absolute 
exposure. Tip guards had concluded to de- 
clare for Gaffba, and had accordingly gone 
away, leaving the fallen tyrant to his fate. 

Nero called desperately to his servants to 
send for .a gladiator to thrust him through 
with a sword, but no one would go. " Alas !" 



A.D.67.] Nero's End. 313 



Phaon proposes a place of retreat. 



he exclaimed, "has it come to this? Am I 
so utterly abandoned that I have not even 
enemies left who are willing to kill me ?" 

After a little time he began to be a little 
more composed, and expressed a wish that he 
knew of some place in the environs of the city 
where he could go and conceal himself for a 
little time until he could determine what to 
do. One of the servants of his household 
named Phaon, told him that he had a country- 
house near the city, where, perhaps, Nero 
might hide. Nero immediately resolved to 
go there. The better to conceal his flight he 
disguised himself in mean apparel, and tied 
a handkerchief about his face ; and then 
mounting on horseback in company with two 
or three attendants, he proceeded out of the 
city. As he went, it thundered and lightened 
from time to time, and Nero was greatly ter- 
rified. He supposed that the commotion of 
the elements was occasioned by the spirits of 
those whom he had murdered coming now to 
persecute and torment him in the hour of his 
extremity. 

He passed, during his ride, a station of the 
guard which happened to be on his way, and 
heard the soldiers cursing him as he went by, 



314 Nero. [A.D. 67. 

Nero's flight from the city. Incidents. 

and expressing joy at his downfall. Soon after 
this he overheard a passenger whom his party 
met on the road, say to his companion, when 
he saw Nero and his attendants riding by, 
u These men no doubt are going in pursuit of 
the emperor." Another man whom they met 
on the wajr stopped them to ask what news 
there was in town about the emperor. In 
these occurrences, though they of course 
tended to increase the agitation and excite- 
ment of Nero's mind, there was nothing par- 
ticularly alarming ; but at length an incident 
happened which frightened the fugitive ex- 
tremely. He was passing a place where a 
carcass lay by the side of the road. Some 
soldiers of the guard were standing near. 
The horse that Nero rode was startled at the 
sight of the carcass, and springing suddenly 
shook down the handkerchief from Nero's 
face. One of the soldiers by this means ob- 
tained a view of his countenance, and ex- 
claimed that that was the emperor. Nero 
was so much alarmed at this that he hastened 
on, and as soon as he was out of the view of 
the men who had seen him, he leaped from 
his horse, and calling upon his attendants to 
dismount too and follow him, he ran into 



AD. 67.] Neeo's End. 315 

He refuses to be buried before he is dead. 

an adjoining thicket, among bushes and bri- 
ers, and thence the whole party made their 
way circuitously round to the rear of Phaon's 
grounds. Here they stopped and hid them- 
selves till they could contrive some way to 
get through or over the wall. 

There was a pit near byy which had been 
made by digging for sand. Phaon proposed 
that Nero should hide in this pit until an 
opening could be made in the wall. But 
]Nfero refused to do this, saying that he would 
not be buried before he was dead. So he re- 
mained hid in the thickets while Phaon w^ent 
to work to make an opening in the wall. 

The wall was not of a very substantial 
character ; if it had been, it would not have 
been possible for Phaon, with the means at 
his command, to have effected a passage. 
As it was, he succeeded, though with diffi- 
culty, in loosening some of the stones, so as 
gradually to make an opening. 

Hero was engaged, while this work was going 
on, in pulling the briers out of his clothes and 
flesh, and being thirsty, he went down to a 
ditch that was near, and drank, taking up 
the water in his hands. As he drank, he 



316 



Nero. 



[A.D. 67. 



He gets through the wall. 



He is concealed. 




PHAON AT THE WALL. 



groaned out, " Oh, can it be that I have come 
to this !" 

In the mean time, Phaon went on with his 
work, and soon succeeded in making a hole 
in the wall sufficient for his purpose, and then 
the men dragged Nero through. They brought 
him into the house, and shut him up in a small 
and secret apartment there. 

JSTero now felt relieved from the extreme ter- 
ror which he had suffered during his flight ; 



A J). 67.] Nero's End. 317 



Phaon counsels Nero to kill himself. 



but the feelings of terror subsided in his mind, 
only to give place to the still more dreadful 
pangs of remorse and horror. He moaned 
continually in his anguish, and incessantly 
repeated the words, " My father, my mother, 
and my wife doom me to destruction." These 
were indeed the words of one of the tragedies 
which he had been accustomed to act upon 
the stage, but they expressed the remorse and 
anguish of his mind so truly, that they recur- 
red continually to his lips. Phaon and the 
men who had brought him to the house, find- 
ing it impossible to calm him, and seeing no 
hope of his final escape from death, and per- 
haps, moreover, wishing to relieve themselves 
of what was now fast becoming a serious bur- 
then to them, recommended to him to kill 
himself, — and thus, as they said, since he 
must die, die like a man. Finally, JSTero 
seemed to yield to their urgings. He said 
that he would kill himself as they desired. 
They might go out and dig a grave for him, 
and prepare wood and water for washing the 
body. While giving these orders he moaned 
and groaned continually, as if in a state of 
delirium. 

In the mean time the morning had come, 



318 Nero. [A.D. 67. 

Nero is condemned by the Senate. The daggers. 

and at Rome all was excitement and commo- 
tion. The Senate came together and pro- 
claimed Galba emperor. They also passed a 
decree pronouncing Nero an enemy to the 
state, and sentencing him to be punished as 
such in the ancient manner. When this news 
transpired, a friend of Phaon wrote a letter to 
him, giving an account of what the Senate had 
done, and sent it off with the utmost haste by 
a trusty messenger. The messenger arrived 
at Phaon's house, and brought the letter in. 
Nero seized it from Phaon's hands, and read 
it. " What is the ancient manner ?" he asked, 
in a tone of great anxiety and terror. They 
told him that it was to be stripped naked, and 
then to be secured by having his head fastened 
in a pillory, and in that position to be whipped 
to death. At hearing this, Nero broke forth 
in fresh groans and lamentations. He could 
not endure such a death as that, he said, and 
he would kill himself, therefore, at once, if 
they would give him a dagger. 

There were daggers at hand. Nero took 
them, examined the points of them with a 
trembling touch, seemed undecided, and 
finally put them away again, saying that his 
hour was not yet quite come. Presently he 



A.D.67.] Neko's End. 319 

Armed men come to arrest Nero at Phaon's house. 

took one of the daggers again, and made a 
new attempt to awaken in himself sufficient 
resolution to strike the blow, but his courage 
failed him. He moaned and raved all this 
time in the most incoherent and distracted 
manner. He even begged that one of the 
attendants who were with him would take the 
dagger and kill himself first, in order to en- 
courage Nero by letting him see that it was 
not after alt so dreadful a thing to die. But 
no one of the attendants seemed sufficiently 
devoted to his master to be willing to render 
him such a service as this. 

In the midst of this perplexity and delay a 
noise was heard as of horsemen riding up to 
the door. Nero was terrified anew at the 
sound. They were coming, he said, to seize 
him. He immediately drew one of the dag- 
gers, and putting it to his throat, attempt- 
ed desperately to nerve himself to the work 
of driving it home. But he could not do it. 
The noise at the door in the mean time in- 
creased. Nero then gave the dagger to one 
of the men standing by, and begged that he 
would kill him. The man took the dagger 
with great reluctance, but presently gave the 



320 Neeo. [A.D. 67. 

The soldiers attempt to save Nero. He dies. 

fatal stab, and Nero sank down upon the 
ground mortally wounded. 

At this moment the door was suddenly- 
opened, and the soldiers that had just arrived 
came in. They had been sent by the Senate 
to search for the fugitive and bring him back 
to Eome. The centurion who commanded 
these men, advanced into the room, and 
looked at the fallen emperor, as he lay upon 
the floor, weltering in his blood. He had 
been commanded to bring the prisoner to the 
city, if possible, alive ; and he accordingly 
ordered the soldiers to come to the dying man 
and endeavor to stanch his wounds and save 
him. But it was too late. Nero stared at 
them as they advanced to take hold of him, 
with a wild and frightful expression of coun- 
tenance, which shocked all who saw him, and 
in the midst of this agony of terror, he sank 
down and died. 

The news of the tyrant's death spread with 
the utmost rapidity in all directions. A 
courier immediately set off for the north to 
carry tidings of the event to Galba. People 
flocked from all quarters to the house of 
Phaon to gaze on the lifeless body, and to ex- 
ult in the monster's death. The people of the 



A.D. 67.] Nero's End. 321 

Galba's march to Rome. Seventy-three. 

city gave themselves up to the wildest and 
most extravagant joy. They put on caps such 
as were worn by manumitted slaves when 
first obtaining their freedom, and roamed 
about the city expressing in every possible 
way the exultation they felt at their deliver- 
ance, and breaking down and destroying the 
statues of Nero wherever they could find 
them. 

In the mean time Galba was steadily ad- 
vancing on the way to Rome. In due time 
he made his entry into the city, and embas- 
sadors came to him there from all parts of the 
Roman world to acknowledge him as the 
reigning emperor. At this time he was 
seventy -three years old. So that the number 
seventy-three of which the oracle had warned 
Nero to beware, denoted the age of his rival 
and enemy, — not his own. 



The End, 



/ 




